The only winner in the transportation industry is — no surprise — J.B. Hunt Transport Services of Lowell. In the past six years its stock has increased by 143.55 percent, rising from an adjusted close of $28.15 on July 2, 2007, to 73.49 on July 1, 2013.
What has J.B. Hunt done right?
Brad Delco, a transportation analyst with Stephens Inc. of Little Rock, noting that he covers only J.B. Hunt, USA Truck and Arkansas Best, said J.B. Hunt in some ways is no longer a trucking company. Instead, it’s a “multifaceted transportation service provider.”
Most of J.B. Hunt’s growth has been in the intermodal segment, the segment he calls the company’s “bread and butter,” which has been growing for the past decade. Rail efficiencies and on-time service have improved, Delco said, causing shippers to realize that they “can convert what were traditional truckload shipments, put them in a J.B. Hunt container and ship them by rail. It’s a cheaper rate and it saves money on fuel. And so J.B. Hunt has certainly benefited from that.”
The high cost of transforming their transportation models has largely prevented the other Arkansas carriers from following suit, he said, though USA Truck has taken steps in that direction and “seen good growth out of it. But they haven’t been in a position to make the type of investments needed in order to really grow that business the same way that J.B. Hunt has.”
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