“Courageous collaboration” across the transportation and logistics industry is what’s needed to fuel further innovation, Shelley Simpson, CEO and president of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, said in a keynote address at FreightWaves F3 in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Tuesday.
The comment harkened back to a 1989 handshake agreement between the company’s founder Johnnie Bryan Hunt and Mike Haverty, who was president of the Santa Fe Railway (now BNSF Railway) at the time. That deal created the foundation for intermodal transportation.
Simpson said that most of J.B. Hunt’s (NASDAQ: JBHT) successes have been the result of a strong buy-in from customers and partners.
“Each one of us have a part. Each one of us have a dream and an idea,” Simpson said.
From the company’s first intermodal load in February of 1990 to a $500 million investment in 2017 centered on “disruptive” technology that catapulted the J.B. Hunt 360 digital platform, the company continues to use tech to transform the industry.
Simpson said J.B. Hunt’s intermodal shipments have cut 30 million metric tons of CO2 over the last decade and prevented 300 truck-related fatalities. The 360 platform has saved 13.5 million empty miles on its equipment and drivers alone since 2019.
Currently, J.B. Hunt is working on safety initiatives using inward-facing cameras and AI to recognize in-cab and external threats. The use of the technology allowed it to reduce preventable accidents per million miles by 25% last year. It’s on track to beat that level this year.
J.B Hunt is currently working with The Trucking Alliance to eliminate large-truck accidents through safety tech and regulation.
The company continues to work to improve driver efficiency and prevent strategic cargo theft. Simpson said technology acts as the intermediary between the company’s people and its capacity.
She said J.B. Hunt is also looking at large initiatives over the next decade that include autonomous trucks, AI-enabled visual systems, infrastructure for fueling and charging on a national scale, and an internal goal of a 32% reduction in carbon emissions by 2034.
Simpson said J.B. Hunt’s vision “to create the most efficient transportation network in North America” should be the mission for the entire industry.
The company is currently working to establish a digital truckload council, similar to The Digital LTL Council, to address uniform industry standards around scheduling, the lifecycle of a load and a more efficient supply chain.
“Be bold, be courageous, be collaborative, and in the words of our founder: to get to where we want to go it takes all of us.”