The American Trucking Associations' advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index fell 0.5% in August to 112.7, down from 113.3 in July. The index uses 2015 as a base of 100. The August reading followed a 1.2% decline in July and sits 1.6% below the same month in 2025, a wider year-over-year drop than July's 0.7% decline. July's reading was revised down from the figure first reported.

The not seasonally adjusted index, which tracks raw changes in tonnage hauled, equaled 116.1 in August, 0.6% below July's 116.7. Year to date, tonnage is up 1% compared with the same period in 2025, supported by strong year-over-year gains from February through April.

ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said tonnage has declined in four of the last five months, sits 4.3% below its March peak and has fallen from year-earlier levels in three of the last four months. He attributed the pattern to reduced capacity in the truck market, and said the market is generally better for carriers because of the supply constraints.

ATA describes trucking as a barometer of the U.S. economy. Trucks carried 72.7% of the tonnage moved by all domestic freight modes and hauled 11.27 billion tons of freight in 2024. Motor carriers collected $906 billion in revenue that year, or 76.9% of the revenue earned by all transport modes. The index is dominated by contract freight and is built from surveys of ATA member carriers, a method in use since the 1970s. The figure is preliminary and subject to revision in the final monthly report.

Source: American Trucking Associations - https://www.trucking.org/news-insights/ata-truck-tonnage-index-fell-05-august