Trucking Tonnage as an Economic Indicator

According to Thom Albrecht, BB&T Capital Markets as reported on September 28, 2011, truck tonnage has grown year-over-year for 21 consecutive months, including a 9.2% growth in August. According to Albrecht, “The U.S. economy has never had a recession without truck tonnage first going negative and a tonnage decline typically leads an official recession by nine to twelve months…Absent a systemic downturn, we believe the data overwhelmingly supports either no recession or at worst, a mild recession.” At All America Transportation, Inc. we believe that the trucking industry is one of the very first indicators of the economic environment in the U.S. If this is true, recovery is on the way for 2012.