JB Hunt - Lowell, Ar.

I will 3rd that statement

 

One thing I dont like about JB is that I can tell theyre trying to hire the cheapest labor possible. All the terminals I go to they have foreigners doing most of the menial jobs like checking your tires or checking you in and out at the security gate. I have ran more miles this month though, around 2,500 a week. They sent us all a message directly from Craig Harper (the main guy) telling us that we were going to be getting more miles because they got more contracts or whatever for more loads. Lets see how long this lasts.

 

i did three and a half weeks with them ...went for the big bucks ....or so i thought
1st week 1600 miles
2nd week 983 miles
3rd week 866 miles
god these people suck

 

"American drivers don't want to drive cabover trucks."

What a claim. It's a little late to be coming from JBH. As if J.B. didn't already know that before they bought those #### things. Or rented them, whichever they're doing. JBH was once a cabover company, then they learned the hard way and bought a bunch of conventional cabs. They knew better than to buy those rigs. Yeah, of late I guess they've gotten stupid and bought 800 Argosy cabovers, so they're reinventing the wheel and blaming the bad results on American drivers.

Let me tell you the real reason those trucks are sitting around idle (and eating into their (supposedly) low profits): JBH SUCKS. They can't keep the American drivers they have/had because they don't know how to treat drivers well enough to keep them on. No, it's not because "American drivers won't drive cabovers." Yeah, it's whine, whine, whine from JB. Maybe they should address the real problems at that company instead of blaming somebody else, like drivers who are exercising good sense by staying away from that outfit. Those drivers know JB's pay is up one year, then down the next, they have atrocious turnover, and they don't give drivers adequate miles. If they WERE any good, you'd not see ads for them all the way down in Australia, just like you don't see ads for ABF jobs in Australia. The posts here on JB are probably 80% negative. And if you come drive for them you'll find out those posters know what they're talking about when they bash that company. But judging by your post, that won't be risk you'll be taking. Smart move, brother.

I believe JB, just like many of the bigger companies, has too many trucks, and it sounds like a substantial number of those are sitting around each week not making money. However, these rigs have fixed costs that must be covered somehow. I'd really like to know how even JBH is able to do this, as it doesn't take many idle trucks to obliterate profits and put a company in the red, assuming all the company whining is true and profits are indeed as low as companies claim (which I don't believe). Something is definitely going on behind the scenes when a company can have over 800 rigs idle and stay in business. I believe these companies get some sort of relief somehow because of their idle trucks. They HAVE to be getting it. The law says they have to maximize profits for the stockholders, and idle trucks don't maximize profits. Believe me, stockholders would be demanding those trucks move if they were dragging down profits. They'd put drivers in 'em somehow. They definitely would NOT be sitting collecting dust.

If JBH does own these rigs, maybe they should sell them to Australian trucking companies. JBH believes Australians, Mexicans, and even Irish drivers will come to the US and drive them, meaning those drivers are willing to drive them anywhere, including their home countries. This means Aussies will drive them in Australia. The trucks just have to be there. Convert 'em to right-hand drive and go to town.

But maybe ol' JBH is smart. Maybe the insiders there knew ahead of time that they could sucker Australian drivers into coming to the USA and went ahead and bought those #### cabovers on the cheap although prior experience told them their American drivers won't drive cabovers. It was part of a strategy. It was/is just a game.

Don't be fooled. Don't fly to the USA for a driving job at J.B. Hunt. But I don't think you will be, right? Yeah, you already know to stay away from JBH. I know I'd never work for a company that has to advertise in such far-away places as Australia for drivers. I'd stay about as far away from JBH as Perth is from New York.

 

I call them by another name, but the last word that rhymes with Hunt isn't fit to print.

 

Maybe JB ain't paying anything on those 800 trucks that are sitting. I mean, it aint like Frtlnr can sell them anyway, if they take them back.

I remember when USX tried to turn in their trucks and Frtlnr did not want them back and wanted USX to put them back on the road. If people remember, USX used to run steers on the drives, but had to change them out when they turned them in. There were lots of grumbling tire changers after that one.

 

Big blue, does JB actually own those trucks or are they leasing/renting them?
If they lease them, they still have to pay the rent on 'em if they're pretty new. If they own them, they still have to pay for things like insurance, registration, that sort of thing for each rig. How does this cost get covered? By the trucks that are actually running. The problem is the fixed costs of these parked rigs can overwhelm profits pretty quickly. And stockholders would be the first to sound the alarm and demand those trucks move.

I suspect some sort of welfare is being paid to these companies, absolutely. Probably in the form of some sort of tax relief. The fixed costs of sitting trucks can't be covered by the low profits of the remaining trucks, if trucking company profits are indeed low like trucking companies claim, when a company has 25% or more of its trucks just sitting around for days or weeks on end. This situation would be exactly the same as the government giving subsidies to farmers to not actually produce milk or grain or whatever, even though those farmers are in business to do exactly that. Some farmers in the midwest get subsidies of several hundred thousands of dollars to do nothing, so it's in their interest not to produce. If trucking companies get subsidies (tax breaks of some kind?) for their empty cleaned-outs, the subsidies may be more than the profits they'd make on those trucks if they were actually being used to make deliveries, meaning it would be in their interest to make sure at least some trucks are sitting idle. They just have to "convince" the drivers of those trucks to quit through bad treatment.

I just can't break away from this idea, my brethren. I've seen too much evidence to believe the driver turnover meat grinder is just a combination of random market-driven events. Something else is at work here.

Besides, when I was driving, I used to see a certain number of cleaned-out trucks at many a terminal relative to the size of the company. I'll call it "Tip's Constant"--the ratio of empty cleaned outs to the total number of trucks. It was suspicously constant. Never more. Never less. Just like it would be if they were getting some sort of subsidy.

And all the company whining about this imaginary "driver shortage" would help their cause as well. That whining would help keep the government gravy rolling in.

But maybe I'm wrong on this one. Maybe there is no sort of "subsidy" being paid. Maybe these trucking companies can get away with having all those empty trucks sitting idle because EVERY company has them. But even then, one company would realize that it could use that fact to its advantage. It could make sure all its rigs are running at all times by cutting its turnover to 25% or even lower from 125%, 150%, whatever.

 

JB got rid of all there cab overs 3 years ago. The only ones they have left are for accounts which need cab overs to get in and out of there docks. All of those accounts are dedicated.

 

It was explained to me once at USX that each truck had to run 2300-2500 miles a week just to break even. Which might explain why they dropped 500 trucks right before I left there. They no longer needed them, due to a quarter of their frt now being run on the rail.

I never worked at JB but I do know that the last time I put in a on-line app, which was'nt even for JB. I had 5 of their recruiters call me up the same day saying I did. So it must be quite competive at JB's recruiting central.

 

i can't figure out all the ranting and raving about jb. is it from experience with them or just from what you all hear from other people. remember you gotta take what people say with a grain of salt. i personally did a tour with jb and made great money. my biggest moan about them is the trucks are slow. every otr company is the same out there in one aspect or the other they just drive with a different logo on the side. we are all out there trying to make the almighty dollar and keep afloat and our heads above water and do what we enjoy doing. and by the way i'm on my second stint with jb now. good miles and they keep me running. i sat once but thats when i changed fleet managers. been running like a mad dog since then. yes jb is full of crap but honestly who isn't. if your not getting home every night they all suck big hairy rat #####.