Mike's Book Club: JB Hunt The Long Haul to Success

JB Hunts flatbed division today is all customized and all dedicated, it's not just OTR flatbed's roaming free around the country. It is very concentrated and pretty much built to spec for the customer they are not competing with anyone else for loads. Basically if an auto chassis manufacturer wants J.B. Hunt to work with them J.B. Hunt provides them with the drivers, tractors, and specialized trailers and they pretty much do that one thing.

Around Cinnincinati, Ohio J.B. Hunt runs a lot of specialized flat beds for a certain customer. There flat bed work is in now way a competitor to TMC or BTS or Melton.

Yeah as far as the 1990s go what a magical decade. The trucks of that era are far superior then the junk we have now.

You are correct J.B. Hunt really did not buy out anyone and even now a days I can't think of any company they have bought out. I was surprised to read that they bought out a company, because you are right they really did not buy any one out at all.

Like Celadon and NFI and you know who they are some of these companies are always pulling someone elses trailer. I mean Celadon that joke of a company has bought out all kinds of people and I know NFI bought out Corr Carriers.

However as far as the real big one's go. J.B. Hunt never really bought anyone out I mean yeah they bought that flabbed company out, but that was about it.

Schneider and Werner are kind of the same who have they bought out?

I tell you what I've seen way more used Schneider and Werner equipment especially Werner because they have a flashy fleet or did then I ever saw used J.B. Hunt equipment.

 

J.B. Hunt had a partnership with Santa Fe (now BNSF) and Quantum was the name of there intermodal/piggy back division.

 

@Mike_77

Werner was always a little bit better about there truck fleet then the other major carriers. Always flashier always mixed fleets always probably slightly better equipment. Where Schneider and J.B. Hunt pretty much ran the exact same power and trailer fleet for 20 years.

Werner always had a mixed bag. Some Freightliners, some flash Pete's some flash Kenworhts, some base Kenworth's, some non-base model flashy Freightliner Classics. Werner knew that you had to diversify a little bit. In the last page of Chapter 4 a large car Pete passes a J.B. Hunt 9700 and Mike Stier said that, those trucks are nice and all, but Mr. J.B.says if they had them then he could only afford to pay drivers $0.18 a mile and that's why we have the cab over Internationals.

I thought about that for a minute and said, no not 100% Werner up until recently always had a very flash non traditional fleet for a big carrier. Never heard C.L. Werener say "Oh we better buy a bunch of fleet garbage." Werener's philosophy was we need to buy stuff that'll sell when were done with it. Who am I Don Schneider or J.B. Hunt! sitting on a pile of 1000 garbage tractors that I can barely sell to the Russians or Vietnamese for pennies on the dollar!
Werner back in the early 2000s started buying trucks of all different colors strictly for re-sale value. Hell it became a rarity to actually see a full fleet blue stripped Werner truck.
People will call Werner names and call them the big blue screw and that's all well and fine I wouldn't care to work there, but I will maintain that up until recently Werner always had the best fleet of all the major carriers hands down it's no contest. Yes I know there fleet is absolute crap now, but from the 1980s to 2016 Werner had the best looking fleet no contest.

 

So basically those International Bus trucks were the Freightliner Century, Columbia and Cascadia of there era.

 

J.B. Hunt Chapter 4 a day in the life:
Mike Stier

Mr. Stier whoever he is I'm not the best at tracking people down on facebook, but if anyone wants to try go ahead.
Was in his early 30s in 1991 and he was working for J.B. Hunt as a driver had 2-3 years under his belt.

He was based out of the Little Rock, Arkansas terminal.
He went through the J.B. Hunt C.D.L. academy.

In 1991 he was sitting in the break room of the Little Rock, Arkansas terminal. A bright clean room full of tables and chairs and light with a TV and vending machine and cigarette smoke oh the cigarette smoke the place looked like a 1950s night club. With a permanent cloud of cigarette smoke hovering around the ceiling.

The other J.B. Hunt drivers would come in and it was always the new guys from around the system who would tell there tall tales and embellished stories.

On his way into the terminal Stier, was listening to the C.B. as he drove his International 9600 "Bus" along the highway across the Arkansas River at 55 miles per hour.

A sarcastic voice crackled over the C.B. "There's Johnnie Bryan puttin down the road holding up national traffic."

Stier turned the C.B. radio off. Said there was to much non-sense on the C.B. he didn't need to hear as he piloted his light yellow J.B. Hunt "Bus" cab over truck down the highway and into the Little Rock, Arkansas terminal.

He watched the flashy Pete's and not so flash orange Schneider trucks and Freightliner FLD's that belonged to Blue Line Food Service from Detroit Michigan pulling trailers that said Little Ceasars Pizza and Very flashy blue and chrome Werner trucks wiz on by. The only one he didn't see wiz on by was Swift who back in those days was busy being slow and was still pulling doubles and had not converted over to 53' trailers. Swift with there big Freightliner FLD full Condo sleeper cabs. But Swift wasn't the laughing stock back then that they are today and I don't care for Swift so I'll be doing no reporting on them. I don't even like talking about them.

However I bet Mr.Stier got passed on by, buy a Burlington Motor Carriers truck and a TRL "Sea to Shining Sea" truck and a Parcel Direct Truck. Probably a set of RPS doubles passed him to and oh how can we forget probably got passed up by many sets of CF, Yellow Freight, Roadway and Con-Way Southern Xpress trucks all yelling on the C.B. "Get out of the way were way better then you! Our trucks are faster and our freight is way more important especially the trucks that say CSE and CF on the side. Mr. Stier probably also got passed by a truck that said CANNON EXPRESS SPRING HILL, ARKANSAS. Also probably a container truck that said BURLINGTON NORTHERN AMERICA. Also probably an M.S. Carriers truck or two. Man he got passed by everyone.

Well look at all them now! Hardy Har Har There all gone and Schneider and J.B. Hunt are still standing biggest in the country!

So anyhow Mr.Stier got to the terminal and sat in that smokey room full of smoke and he listened quietly to the tall tall tales. One driver said a flatbedder who was mad at him hit his J.B. Hunt truck and knocked his mirrors in and another J.B. Hunt truck pulled along side him as he was going down the highway and pulled his mirror out and back into position. You know normal stuff like that.

Any, how Mr. Stier after hearing the tall tales was called to the dispatch window and he walked over and the dispatcher handed him his orders. He walked out of the terminal building and walked over to his brand new 1991 International 9700 and climbed in.

To Be Continued...

 

Were just talking for fun it really doesn't matter for anything.

 

No biggie and I'll have you know I have never chosen a company by if the wheels are shiny or not ha-ha of course I only ever had one job before the job I have now ha-ha and the company I worked for before the trucks were nothing to write home about LOL! The company I work for now has a nicer fleet, but were also a private fleet and were a food company so we kind of have to look clean and nice because we handle food that people eat.

In the last paragraph of chapter 4 this JB Hunt driver gets passed up by a fancy big shiney truck and he said boy would that be nice, but Mr. JB says that if we had trucks like that he could only pay us $0.18 a mile. So instead we have these Bus trucks and while there not as nice as that big shiny truck there comfy enough and have what we need.