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Sept 23-25, 2026 | Scottsdale, AZ

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Jeff Kauffman

Contributing Economic Analyst

Jeff Kauffman has been as recognized authority in trucking, logistics and transportation equipment since 1993. He has been a frequent contributor to national news outlets on economic and trucking industry trends, and writes a bimonthly column “Behind the Numbers,” which appears in Heavy Duty Trucking and on TruckingInfo.com.

The longtime global head of freight transportation research for Merrill Lynch, he now heads up his own transportation consulting firm, Tahoe Ventures. He is also serves as principal of transportation and logistics equity research at Vertical Research Partners.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•May 10, 2021

Truck Spot Rates Will Mirror 2011-2012 [Commentary]

While some have predicted a cliff-event drop in spot rates like in 2018, there is evidence that we may instead see more of a contract rate extended plateau, similar to what we saw in 2011-2012, Jeff Kauffman suggests.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•March 23, 2021

What Railroad Statistics Can Tell Us About Truck Freight Volumes

Is a broad statistic that can give us a real-time second-level read on the magnitude and direction of freight trends? The answer is rail carloads.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•January 8, 2021

How Did Wild Third-Quarter Swings Affect Fleet Earnings?

How did publicly traded trucking fleets perform financially as the roller-coaster year of 2020 headed back uphill in the third quarter?

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•November 3, 2020

Inside the Tennis-Ball-Bounce Economic Recovery [Commentary]

Most major freight indexes continued to advance last month, but the economy may not be as healthy as we would hope.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•July 6, 2020

Economic Recovery: Alphabet Soup or Tennis Ball Bounce? [Commentary]

The global shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to wreak havoc in economic forecasting.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•January 3, 2020

Where are we headed in 2020? [Commentary]

For the third time this year, the economy seems to be doing better than trucking markets.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•November 18, 2019

Carrier Earnings Worse than the Economy Might Indicate [Commentary]

For the third time this year, the economy seems to be doing better than trucking markets. Let’s dig into third-quarter earnings reports from publicly traded fleets for more.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•October 21, 2019

What Can Purchasing Managers Tell Us About Truck Tonnage?

In early October, we received a series of weaker-than-expected consumer and industrial data. Whether or not this data proves to be an outlier because of trade concerns and the strike at General Motors remains to be seen.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•September 25, 2019

Is the Trucking Environment Getting Better or Just Less Bad? [Commentary]

The difference between last year’s high spot rates and this year’s average has dropped — but this year’s seasonal decline was less.

Articles•by Jeff Kauffman•September 3, 2019

Truck Fleet Earnings Are Lagging the Overall Economy

Bad weather, tariffs, a later than usual Easter holiday – all of it contributed to trucking company results that were worse than the overall economic trend would lead you to expect.