JB Hunt: Revenue Up – Income Down

by Tom Moore on Aug 5, 2019 8:00:00 PM

JB Hunt is my bellwether – I can see what is happening in each segment. My summary is:

Prices are up in truckload
Brokerage is suffering from increased costs and declining spot prices
Intermodal is a mixed bag – maybe longer hauls, definitely higher cost to the shipper
Dedicated is always a cash cow

Here are the details:

Intermodal, which is more than 50% of JB’s revenue, saw a slight drop, but income took a 7% hit in profit – but the details are revealing: Revenue decreased 1%, reflecting the 8% volume decline and an approximate 7% increase in revenue/load
Dedicated revenue is up 28%, but profits are only up 3% – there was a one-time charge that hurt
Truckload revenue was down 2%, but profits were up 19% – 4% increase in rates per loaded mile and a 3% decrease in the length of haul
Brokerage lost money on $334Million in revenue

Interesting fact: JBH Intermodal has 97,000 trailers and 5,600 tractors!

Supply Chain Optimization