J.B. Hunt Undercover-Day #4 Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Our very wet dynamic duo finally made it to Jacksonville, Florida and have lots to share today.  Here is a short video that shows us going to a paper mill in Cedar Springs, GA:

Our drivers ran into another Swift driver who gave them a tour of his truck.  Here are some comparison pictures:

 Our tractors are the ProStar Plus.  Swift has the Prostar Plus Eagle.

 Our People Net units are mounted in the middle of the console. 

 The Swift tractor has the Qualcomm OBC mounted high.  Notice the wood trim on their console.

It is very soggy in Florida and along the I-10 corridor.

It is not all storms and tornadoes along the trail.  Here is some dry pavement and a sad country song.  Rumor has it that Rodney and Mike sniffled during this tune and played a Carpenters tune right after this song finished. (Rainy Days and Mondays). 



Truckload Outdoor Advertising

This is the latest banner that we have placed in Dallas, Texas at our terminal.  Bodie Travis and his team made sure our advertising is readable from Kiest Blvd.   This banner is targeting Independent Contractors for our Truckload fleet.

Here is what the banner looks like close up:

J.B. Hunt Undercover-Day #3 in HOTLANTA

Our dynamic duo just arrived in Forest Park, GA.  No moss grew on these two.  They have been busy in many facets of terminal operations.  Enjoy:

 Rodney did not hold up his side of the bargain.  He told us he was not going to fuel the truck once this week since he had a professional passenger!

 

Atlanta team performs an inspection.  Lets hope it passed since it has only driven 700+ miles.

Our duo makes a suprise visit to orientation.  The dialogue was heavy on hours of service.

 

 Buford takes care of our drivers in Atlanta with  first class truck washes! 

J.B. Hunt Undercover- Day #2 Outrunning the Tornadoes

Our team had an eventful day as they made their way through Memphis and Tupelo.  The tornado that impacted Arkansas caused more havoc in Mississippi.  The traffic made a huge impact on what Rodney and Mike were able to accomplish in the early afternoon.

Our guys met up with a Swift driver who was on his way to Las Vegas.  You can see a side by side comparison of our truck versus the competitor.

 Rodney and Mike crossed the Georgia border late last night and should be arriving in Jacksonville very late tonight.  We are thankful they narrowly missed two extremely dangerous weather events.  They both talked about the power of what they saw in Arkansas when they drove through Mayflower on Sunday night.  This is one example of a 1 hour delay in Muskogee paying dividends.

Criticism of New HOS

A memo from the American Transportation Research Institute last week questioning the government’s perceived safety benefits of the hours-of-service rule change likely did not surprise many in trucking.

Since the new, more restrictive restart provision took effect last July, complaints from truckers about hits to productivity have been common. At the same time, so have their questions about whether mandating a 34-hour minimum weekend, including time off from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on two consecutive days, was improving safety.

In January, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released a study that it asked a Washington State University researcher to do on the restart provision. The study found the provision had been useful in combating driver fatigue. At last month’s Mid-America Trucking Show, FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro defended the restart provision and the research that supports it.
However, ATRI said FMCSA’s findings are based on extremely small differences that are difficult to measure.

“The FMCSA study presents findings, but they are built on very, very minute differences. The study makes it sound like they are real differences, but they’re not,” said ATRI President Rebecca Brewster.

Among the issues that ATRI specifically criticized in the study was tracking only 106 drivers over 12 days, because there are 1.6 million heavy-duty drivers. In addition, the study did not take into account the greater chance of an accident because truckers must be on the highways more often during peak traffic times.

FMCSA also claimed drivers get more sleep under the new rule, but ATRI said the improvement was 8.9 hours out of 24, up from 8.8 hours, an increase of six minutes.

“FMCSA has heard loudly and clearly from carriers and drivers that the new rules are not advancing safety and are creating additional stress and fatigue on the part of truck drivers,” said Steve Rush, president of tank truck carrier Carbon Express of Wharton, N.J.

The agency’s job is to regulate the trucking industry, but it also has to do so in a way that is perceived as fair.

While it would be unreasonable to expect the entire industry to be onboard with every action FMCSA takes, we seem to be moving toward an HOS tipping point.

There remains adamant belief — and growing evidence — that the restart provision is significantly damaging the industry.

At the very least, such vehement disagreement about the validity of a study should give FMCSA reason to reopen dialogue on the issue.

Truckload Promotion Announcement

Please join us in congratulating Danny Williams on his recent promotion to PCS Recruiting Manager.

Danny attended Fayetteville High School and the University of Arkansas where he studied Real Estate Financing. He started with J.B. Hunt as a PCS Recruiter in December 2010.  Danny has demonstrated strong leadership skills through his commitment to his work and willingness to help train and mentor many of his peers. We are confident Danny's experience, strong work ethic, and leadership skills will allow him to be very successful helping lead the PCS Recruiting team.

Congratulations Danny!!!

Delivered Safe and Sound

The Bachman Wilson House, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home acquired in January by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, has arrived in northwest Arkansas after traveling by road and rail from where it was built in Millstone, N.J., 60 years ago.

After weeks of careful disassembly, wrapping and labeling by workers, the 2,800-square-foot house and its contents were loaded onto a J.B. Hunt Transport tractor-trailer and a separate container for transport to the trucking company's storage facility in Lowell. J.B. Hunt donated its services for the move.

"We've moved a lot of neat items, but not such a unique piece of history," Eric McGee, senior vice president-transportation for J.B. Hunt, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/1jBy8sP).
Just in the past year, the trucking company has moved a truckload of human brains for research, as well as lasers for the U.S. Navy and live honeybees.

The tractor-trailer traversed 1,235 miles and crossed states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri to get to Lowell.

The separate container was trucked to Chicago and taken by Norfolk Southern Railway to Kansas City, Mo. The trucking company then picked the container up and transported it to northwest Arkansas.

The expedition took place during a weekend with the help of two drivers who've each logged more than 1 million miles without an accident, McGee said.

The pieces will be moved to a hangar at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill for storage until the site work is complete at Crystal Bridges in Bentonville. Sections will be taken to the site as needed.

Crystal Bridges does not disclose the cost of acquisitions, though the trucking company insured the trailer and container, both 53 feet long, for $450,000 each.

Deconstruction was meticulous, said Dennis Miller, an intermodal director for J.B. Hunt.
"I'm told (that) anything and everything is in there," Miller said of the trailer and container.
Crystal Bridges did not buy the land on which the house used to sit, and the foundation remains on the site.

The Bachman Wilson House's previous owners, Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino, put the house up for sale after repeated flooding from the nearby Millstown River.

The Usonian house is one of about 60 designed by Wright with simplicity and affordability in mind. Abraham Wilson and Gloria Bachman commissioned Wright to design the house in 1954. Gloria's brother, Marvin Bachman, was an apprentice under Wright.

The Tarantinos, one an architect and the other a designer, were adamant about finding a new location for the house that mimicked the natural beauty of its former location. Crystal Bridges' 120-acre grounds are camouflaged by rare trees and foliage, making it difficult to see the museum from afar, even in the dead of winter.
The site selected by the museum for the house is off the art trail, a short walk from the museum's south entrance and overlooking Crystal Spring.

With the reconstruction yet to be done, more hard work lies ahead.

Scott Eccleston, director of facilities and grounds for the museum said the rebuild will be completed in two phases: preparation of the site and actual reassembly.

The first phase - doing dirt work on the near-half-acre spot and laying the infrastructure - should be done by July 4, he said.

A construction fence and signs have been installed and there's been some rerouting of trails.

"In the next couple of weeks, you will hear equipment moving out there," Eccleston said.
The reconstruction and landscaping should be complete sometime in spring 2015.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/04/27/3404547/frank-lloyd-wright-designed-home.html#storylink=cpy

J.B. Hunt Undercover- Day #1 No Bathroom in Muskogee

Today, Mike Taylor and Rodney Collins departed the Lowell, Arkansas yard with great anticipation.  Mike and Rodney will be spending the next week together in one of our trucks.  We will be sharing information about their trip as they see shippers, truck stops, terminals, and receivers.

Day #1 included a short deadhead to Muskogee, Oklahoma.  Rodney is dispatched on a load from Muskogee to Jacksonville, Florida.  The load was ready within 1 hour of arrival (when they first arrived there was a concern about the load being ready as scheduled).  The other hiccup the guys had to deal with was facilities that are not friendly to our drivers.  The restroom was out of order in the only area drivers have to sit and wait for loads to get ready.

 

 

When the guys tried to utilize Navigo they found something interesting related to fuel stop data:

 

 

It is doubtful that we have no fuel stops between Muskogee and Jacksonville.  This is a glitch that we will be looking into tomorrow.   We are testing everything associated with the quality of dispatch and treatment our drivers receive internally and externally.

 

 

Tomorrow will bring interesting information as the truck starts making its way east.





Peter Anaya - J.B. Hunt Tester

Pete Anaya visited us in Lowell, Arkansas and we checked out his Freightliner Cascadia Truck.  Pete has taken on the responsibility of testing many components for the company. 

 Pete has an APU on his tractor manufactured by Dynasyst.

Pete's DEF tank is in a different position versus the International trucks.

The maintenance team installed a toolbox on the driver side of the tractor.  This helps Pete due to the smaller 60" bunk.

.
Pete is getting a sneak peak of version 1.13 from PeopleNET which includes features that many of our driver's have been requesting, including: countdown to required break, night mode and a delete all messages option. He will also start using the Workflow feature that speeds up the Loaded and Unloaded call process. And he will be one of the first to try Navigo 5.1 for routing and directions. This update to Navigo includes many of the features found on the consumer GPS devices - like lane guidance and posted speed alerts - all Class 8 routing of course!

The Boston Marathon-The View from Big Papi

I know many of us watched the results of the Boston Marathon with more interest this year than ever before.   I read something that resonated with me today about the fortitude of the people of Boston.  Enjoy:

 People made a big deal about what I said last year at Fenway Park, when I spoke before our first game after the bombing.  I didn't know what I was going to say before I went out on the field.  I just knew that I was angry.  I was frustrated.  I was emotional and a little scared---I felt the same way everyone else did.  I think we're all the same:  In bad times we look for someone to help us through, like a superhero in the movies.

I was looking for a hero to protect what is ours.  Our city.  Our Marathon.  Our way of life.  When I said what I said and I saw the look in people's eyes, I knew we would be alright. 

                                                                                                                            David Ortiz

 

As I was writing this in the Atlanta airport a bright color caught my eye.  I recognized the adidas jacket that finishers get at the Boston Marathon.  Wendy Brandt, a local junior high Cross Country coach from Harrison, was sitting in the waiting area for our flight to NWA.  She finished in 3:41 and was clearly emotional about what she experienced yesterday.

Goodyear-Akron, OH

 Yesterday we visited the Goodyear Corporate Headquarters in Akron, Ohio.  Goodyear is one of the largest manufacturers of tires in the world.  Goodyear develops, markets, and sells tires  for most applications.  They have 51 plants in 22 countries. 

The Goodyear philosophy on supply chain is gravitating towards a core carrier concept.  We currently operate business in intermodal, dedicated and our brokerage product.  Our visit was intended to reassure Goodyear that our Truckload fleet could be counted on to deliver required service levels.  This is a client that we would like to grow with moving forward.

Bachman Wilson Overdrive

This past January, Crystal Bridges acquired a rare Frank Lloyd Wright house, known as the Bachman Wilson House. In order to best preserve the architecturally significant structure, which had previously been exposed to repeat flooding, it was determined that the house would have to be relocated. After careful deliberation, a location on Crystal Bridges’ grounds overlooking Crystal Spring was selected to be the future site of the Bachman Wilson House.

 

Over the past three months, a specialized contractor and his team have meticulously disassembled by the 1954 Usonian house along with all of its custom fixtures and furniture. The most recent owners, architect/designer team Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino, oversaw the packing of the building components as they were carefully dismantled and loaded into two shipping containers. Today, those containers hit the road!

 

One container holding fragile components—doors, fixtures, and furniture—will be shipped to Northwest Arkansas by truck. The other container will be traveling via intermodal transportation—a fast and secure shipping method which utilizes both trucks and trains.

J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. has donated its services to transport the Bachman Wilson House to Bentonville.  Richard Leiner, one of our elite 2 Million Mile truckload drivers, is bringing the over the road load from Somerville, NJ to the Northwest Arkansas area.  

“We are honored to be a part of such a monumental effort to save one of America’s truly iconic structures,” said John Roberts, President and CEO of J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. “We are pleased the house will settle within our area’s natural beauty and provide such valuable educational opportunities.”

Our 1st Quarter Truck Rally

 

 

(Pictured Above:  March Driver of the Month Shawn Whaley , Shelley Simpson, and February Driver of the Month Derrick Caddell)

 

Shelley Simpson led our Truckload Q1 Rally on April 17, 2014 and helped us honor our March Driver of the Month.  An additional bonus was having Derrick Caddell at our rally.  Derrick received the Driver of the Month honor in the month of Febuary.   For those of you who might have missed our earnings release last Monday, Shelley's role has been expanded to include the title of Chief Marketing Officer and President of ICS and Truck.  We welcome her enthusiasm and approach to restoring our Truckload brand to its proper place amongst the enterprise offerings at J.B. Hunt .

 

 

 

  

Truckload Division Driver of the Month-March 2014

Congratulations to Shawn Whaley, our Truckload Division Driver of the Month for March 2014!

Shawn resides in Snead, Alabama.  He has been a valuable member of our team for 1.8 years.  Shawn achieved our Driver of the Month for March due to the following results:

• 11,301 Miles
• 7.12 Miles Per Gallon
• 4% Variance
• No Collisions
• No Injuries
• 100% On Time Service
• #17 Ranking in our Driver Scorecard

Shawn has a gift for getting his customers to take loads early, which is part of our velocity strategy.  As the Driver of the Month, we were fortunate to be able to spend time with Shawn in Lowell, Arkansas.  We took him to lunch and learned a great deal about him and life on the road.  The maintenance team detailed his tractor.  Our CDP Advertising team interviewed Shawn and took some great pictures of him for use in our literature.   Finally, Shawn was recognized in our auditorium in front of our entire team and received the obligatory confetti shower.  Thanks Shawn for all your contributions to our Truckload team!

  

J.B. Hunt Client Review

 

 

 

On Tuesday Paul Olivieri led a meeting with our largest client in the J. B. Hunt Truckload book of business.  Paul received nice recognition that deserves to shared:

 

Georgia Pacific said we did a good job with the meeting.  Paul, thanks for all your prep work and delivery. The customer agreed it was one of our better meetings.

 

 

  

Lighining Strikes Twice!

Our drivers achieved a great feat on Tuesday. For the second time in one week the entire Truckload fleet went preventable and non-preventable collision free in a 24 hour period.  This does not happen by chance. Our philosophy of putting "safety first" has proven to be a wise investment. There is a reason the foundation of our pillar strategy is safety-it is the right thing to do for our employees and the motoring public.

Excellent job by the Truckload Team!

 

Happy Anniversary Vicki Mitchell

Today is an extremely special day.  Vicki Mitchell, our Truckload Division office employee with the most seniority, celebrates her 30th anniverary with J.B. Hunt today.  Please join us in congratulating Vicki on this amazing achievement. 

I Own This Truck!

Please join us in congratulating Edward Mayes (on right hand side) , our newest truck owner!

Edward and his wife live in McComb MS. Edward came on board with JB Hunt in March 2013. Edward said he saved all his money to pay off the lease early with support from his wife. He is now the proud owner of a 2007 Century Class Freightlliner. Edward has made the decision to continue his partnership with JB Hunt in our IC division.

Again, congratulations to Edward and his family,

1st Quarter Communication to our Drivers

 

We will be sending the below note in the form of a hotline and an OBC message tomorrow. Our drivers are key to our current and future success. Lets make sure they know how much we appreciate the work they do.

 

 

After reflecting on our results for the 1st quarter of 2014, we want to extend a heartfelt “Thank You" for your part in the progress we are making in rebuilding our Truckload brand. Over the past several months a lot of hard work and sacrifice has been exhibited by all of our people as we work towards this common goal. We know it has not been easy. The weather in January and February played a significant role in our ability to provide service to our customers and utilization for you. Your commitment to safety never wavered. You performed like true professional drivers in the face of this adversity. 
 

 

Our recent change to our fleet is substantial. We have invested over $36 million dollars in the past 3 months in new tractors and trailers. Our drivers and customers deserve the most dependable equipment in the industry. Additionally, we are proud to announce that Shelley Simpson will formally assume the additional role of President of our Truckload division. This title change reflects her responsibilities to our customers and employees for the strategic growth of our entire J.B. Hunt
enterprise.

 

We are excited about the future of our Truckload division. You are a vital part of a company that is on the move.

Text Me

Here is the before....click the video to see the after:

 

 

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.  Two of the most dangerous distractions are cell phone use and texting.  I wanted to share a few key facts to help everyone understand why J.B. Hunt Transport has zero tolerance for cell phone use or texting by our drivers while operating a Commercial Motor Vehicle.  According to the latest data provided by distraction.gov (the official U.S. Government website for distracted driving):

·         Engaging in visual-manual subtasks (such as reaching for a phone, dialing, or texting) associated with the use of hand-held devices increased the risk of getting into a crash by three times.

·         Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting.  When traveling 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded.

·         Headset cell phone use is not substantially safer than hand-held use.

·         At any given daylight moment in America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating other electronic devices while driving, a number that has held steady since 2010.

To me, these are amazing statistics.  While we cannot control the habits of the motoring public, we definitely can do our part to ensure our drivers are never distracted by talking on their cell phones or texting while driving.  And by doing our part, we can help save lives.

No Trucking Today

This video might move you.  Enjoy!

Honesty is the best Policy

We received a note from our customer in PA concerning one of our drivers, Carlos Rodriguez:

Here is the detail behind what Carlos did:

Byron Munden, Carlos Rodriguez and Cody Styer at our Tannersville, PA office.

 
Carlos lives out on the island close to the Sam's club in Medford. He had delivered a load to the club in Medford a few days ago. He went back the following morning to pick up the empty trailer to use for his Wal-Mart load. He had already identified an empty trailer he was going to use from the previous evening. He hooked to the empty the following morning and headed to the next vendor.

When he arrived to the vendor, he discovered the trailer had been loaded with product. The Sam's club in Medford had reloaded the empty with units of swing sets. Apparently, Sam's club had made a mistake when they loaded the trailer with those swing sets. Carlos took the trailer back to Medford with all swing sets intact. The club realized their mistake and was appreciative that Carlos had returned the product..

Wake Up Call

We spend a great deal of our time talking about safety.  We invest our time in safety because it is the right thing to do.  The video above from California reinforces how important safety is when we are traversing the nations highways.

Our company experienced a horrific bus crash that occurred in Louisiana in 2010.  None of us that worked for the company at the time will ever forget the names of Karen Stoute and Colby Richard.

Our people put "Safety First" so we can avoid scenes like you see in this video and picture.  We must be vigilant.  One moment of inattention could put one of our drivers in a similar situation.  Remember, Safety is the foundation of our Pillar Strategy in Truckload.  It is the best investment we can make in our employees.

Express B-Service Success

Here is an example of the great work being done in Big D by Bodie Travis and his maintenance team.  This is the 5th DCS or Truckload unit that the Dallas team has performed an Express B-Service on this week.  This is another example of our CAPEX investment paying off with modern equipment in our fleets that lets our drivers earn miles and our divisions increase revenue potential.  Check this out:


 

1.8 Hours Total Dwell.. 2.92 Man Hours.. 2 Techs on the lube bay.. One torquing and one inspecting and greasing.

 

Here is what Bodie and his managers found after an inspection of the express B:

 

Tires - 108-112 (Unit was hot, just in off road,, also super singles)

Unit was greased properly

Unit was overfull on coolant

W/S Wash was full

B Decal changed

Batteries cleaned

Lugs torqued

Unit was NOT Washed; Driver was waiting. Spoke to him and he will turn in for wash after his shift.

Oil level good

Trans and diffs were checked and good

New Unit, no issues.. Overall service A-.. Not too shabby for a 1.8 hour turn

 

New Advertising for Truckload

 

 

 

 

Here is a great set of posters that we are going to use at terminals, in our breakrooms, and for internal marketing of our Truckload jobs and brand.  Do you like the concept?