Trucking activity in the United States has continued its surge, with the American Trucking Association’s tonnage index capping off three months of increases with the best January figure in five years.
   Tonnage grew by 2.9 percent in January, after gains of 2.4 percent in December and 3.7 percent in November.
   “The trucking industry started 2013 with a bang,” ATA’s economist Bob Costello said in a statement. “While I believe that the overall economy will be sluggish in the first quarter, trucking likely benefited in January from an inventory destocking that transpired late last year, thus boosting volumes more than normal early this year as businesses replenish those lean inventories.”
   Overall, trucking grew by 2.3 percent in 2012 after a 5.8-percent gain in 2011. - Jon Ross