ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Trucking Association’s (ATA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.3-percent in July, the first month-to-month increase since last March. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said July’s tonnage reading points to continued softness in the trucking industry, “specifically as it relates to the weight of goods shipped.”

However, he noted that other measures of trucking volumes “are not as lackluster. The number of for-hire loads, for example, which ATA publishes in a separate report, increased 0.4-percent during the first half of 2007 on a year-over-year basis.”

The ATA said the 2007 fall freight season will be “modest. Shippers increasingly spread the peak season over more months, the housing market is expected to remain down and economists predict only moderate economic growth in the near term.”