Three large less-than-truckload carriers entered September with sharply different August tonnage readings, but the split becomes more useful when shipments and weight are separated. XPO reported a 3.7% year-over-year increase in LTL tonnage per day, Saia reported an 8.7% increase in tonnage per workday, and Old Dominion Freight Line reported a 0.9% decrease in tons per day.
Those figures are company-specific operating updates, not a national LTL index. Each compares August 2026 with August 2025 inside one carrier's network, customer mix and service footprint. XPO labels its figures preliminary, and XPO and Saia caution that later quarterly results can differ from these limited operating updates. The releases do not provide a common seasonal adjustment or enough information to calculate market share.
XPO's gain came with more pieces of business and slightly lighter average shipments. Shipments per day increased 5.7% from a year earlier while weight per shipment decreased 1.8%. Tonnage still rose 3.7%, but the components describe a network handling more shipments whose average weight was lower than in the comparable month.
Saia produced almost the opposite mix. Its shipments per workday increased 1.1%, while weight per shipment increased 7.5% and tonnage per workday increased 8.7%. The much larger weight change means most of Saia's reported tonnage growth came from heavier average shipments rather than a similar increase in shipment count. July showed the same direction, with tonnage up 7.8%, shipments up 0.8% and weight per shipment up 7.0%.
Old Dominion's network recorded fewer shipments but slightly heavier freight. Shipments per day decreased 2.4%, weight per shipment increased 1.7% and tons per day decreased 0.9%. Revenue per day nevertheless increased 12.4%. For July and August combined, revenue per hundredweight increased 11.3%, including fuel surcharges, and 4.8% excluding them. Those quarter-to-date yield figures should not be treated as an August rate index for another carrier or a quoted lane.
The arithmetic helps explain why tonnage alone cannot describe dock workload or revenue quality. A network can add shipments while average weight falls, as XPO reported; gain substantial tonnage with only a small shipment increase, as Saia reported; or lose shipments while heavier average freight offsets part of the decline, as Old Dominion reported. None of those combinations identifies pallet count, cube, class, length of haul, accessorial work or pickup-and-delivery stops.
FreightNews infers that the August comparison is a freight-mix signal, not a declaration that the entire LTL market strengthened or weakened. More shipments can require more bills, pickups, deliveries and dock touches even when average weight falls. Heavier average shipments can consume trailer capacity differently without producing the same stop growth. Price and fuel effects can lift revenue even when physical tons move the other way.
Carriers and terminals can test the public signal against shipments per route, pounds and cube per shipment, bills per dock hour, pickup-and-delivery stops, trailer utilization, rehandles, claims and revenue per hundredweight excluding fuel. Shippers and brokers should keep the same distinctions when comparing bids: a carrier's national tonnage result does not establish available capacity, service conditions or price on a specific origin-destination pair.
The clearest August conclusion is narrower than a market-cycle label. XPO moved more, lighter shipments; Saia's average shipment became much heavier; and Old Dominion handled fewer, slightly heavier shipments while reporting strong revenue growth. The next operating decision belongs to the lane and freight profile, not the largest percentage in a one-month release.