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!