The nation’s trucks hauled more freight in August, according to ACT Research, the third time in the past four months that the company has reported an increase in its freight volume index.
The recent shift to positive in this metric since May suggests that if conditions are not exactly improving at this point, they have at least stopped getting worse. Prior to May, 14 of the preceding 15 “net capacity” readings were negative.
The big driver of the positive “net capacity” outcome in August was a sharp spike upwards in the freight volume component of the index. Just as freight growth and capacity additions showed weakness in July, strength in both metrics in August are related to seasonality: Freight starts moving in August following plant shutdowns in July even as truckers come back to work following their own vacations.
For more information on ACT, visit http://www.actresearch.net.