Took a while but we are finally out of our Triple Wide office trailer and into our new facility.   Phase 2 is now under way which will include the entrance and additional parking.  Hard to believe that we spent almost 8 years in a set of office trailers and now----WOW what  most of the team here says.  From 14 work stations where we had to hot rack most of them to 22 work stations with room to grow.  From a small meeting area where 14 were too many to a meeting room to now where 48 seems just right.  From about 5 acres to almost 28.   From about 150 total drivers to almost 400 drivers.  Looking forward to even more growth in manager and driver numbers.

Shop on site and not 8 miles down the road.  Stacking close 1250 containers a few months ago -- now, due to weather haver about 150 left.

We are all so very glad to be in the new digs.

President to direct next round of emissions, fuel efficiency standards for trucks

Here's a recent article from the Commercial Carrier Journal concerning new emission and fuel efficiency standards for trucks.

President Barack Obama is set to announce Feb. 18 new greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for post-2018 year model trucks, per a White House announcement, in a speech today in Maryland.

Obama will order the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation to produce a rule by March 2015 to once again tighten fuel efficiency standards and greenhouse gas emissions standards, nailing down specifics for the president’s Climate Action Plan unveiled in June 2013, where Obama announced his intention to direct such initiatives.
The rule would go into effect March 2016, per the White House announcement, and will build upon the first-ever fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks implemented for 2014-2018 model trucks.
The first round, the White House says, is expected to save the trucking industry $50 billion and save 530 million barrels of oil.
The next round will save the average truck owner $73,000 in the typical lifetime of a truck, the White House says.
The announcement says that in 2010, trucks made up four percent of the vehicles registered in the U.S. but accounted for a quarter of the nation’s fuel use and emissions.
As the means to achieve greater fuel efficiency, the White House hopes the plan will “spur manufacturing innovation and lead to the adoption of new fuel-efficient technologies on trucks and semi-trailers,” and the EPA and DOT will hope to push improvements in engine and powertrain efficiency, aerodynamics, weight reduction, tire rolling resistance, hybridization, automatic engine shutdown and other parts, according to the announcement.
 The EPA and the DOT will be directed to work with industry stakeholders — like manufacturers and trucking fleets — to determine opportunities for fuel savings and emissions gains.
The President also plans to try to form public-private partnerships to help increase adoption of natural gas and other alt fuel vehicles.
The White House says it also plans to continue its work with manufactures in building concept trucks, like the SuperTrucks developed so far working with Cummins, Volvo, Navistar and Daimler, in an attempt to push the average fuel economy of a Class 8 truck and trailer to 9.75 mpg.
The President in his speech today also is going to prod Congress to end subsidies for oil and gas companies and to create a research fund for research into “advanced vehicle technologies.”

Charlotte Intermodal

Nicknamed the Queen City or Home of Nascar, Charlotte's central location between the population centers of the northeast and the southeast has made it a transportation focal point and primary distribution center. It's  also home to The J.B. Hunt Charlotte Intermodal Fleet which consist of 63 trucks and 80 drivers broken into two categories:

Local - services all customers within a 150 mile radius (55 drivers and 39 trucks)

Regional - services all customers over a 150 mile radius (25 drivers and 25 trucks)

 The Charlotte service area covers the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and parts of Virginia. The  management team consist of four managers that are pictured below.

Pictured left to right:

Franklin Barnes - Fleet Manager
Kimberly Cooper - Logistics Coordinator
Hiram Rodriguez - Fleet Manager
Derek McCall - Ramp Manager

The Memphis Crew

East of the Mississippi River, South of the Nonconnah Creek and center stage in "America's distribution center," you'll find the JB Hunt Intermodal Memphis Crew! The Memphis operation has grown over the years from a handful of drivers back at the beginning of 2000 to now operating with nearly 250 drivers on a daily basis. Of that 250, roughly 100 drive for the local fleet and 150 for the regional fleet. The entire operation is overseen by fifteen managers, most of which are pictured below. Within the Memphis area, there are four major railroads (BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CSX and the Canadian National) that handle the freight for a customer base that covers an eight state radius.

Pictured from left to right is the Memphis management team:
Pierre Ross - Fleet manager
Quincy Foster - Driver/Part-time dispatcher
Cary Lucas - Fleet manager
Sharon Cryer - Fleet manager
Ross Hensley - Fleet manager
Philip Harwell - Logistics Coordinator
John Calcote - Regional Operations Manager
Bo Kirkland - Fleet Manager
John Flynt - Director of Operations
Jordan Bowden - Logistics Coordinator
Melanie Brown - Fleet Manager
Anthony Lipford - Fleet Manager

Not pictured: Jeremy Thompson - Fleet Manager
Sharonda Robinson - Fleet Manager
Patricia Weikel - Logistics Coordinator 

 

 

Not Waiting on Washington

As many of you know our Chief Operating Officer, Craig Harper, has for the past several years lobbied for regulation that would make the trucking industry safer.  These efforts have focused primarily on mandating EOBR usage and hair testing for illegal drug use.  Craig and his counterparts from the Trucking Alliance he helped form are featured in the latest issue of the Arkansas Trucking Report.  The cover can be seen below (Craig is seated on couch).

Theirs is an unusual cause rarely seen in our nation's capitol:  business leaders lobbying for MORE regulation of their industry.

Below is a link to the entire article which begins on page 24.

http://www.arkansastrucking.com/publications/arkansastruckingreport/184-issue6-2013


John McKuin
VP of Ops

Sunshine State

Several years ago when JBI had very little volume into the state of Florida, almost all of these loads were outsourced to dray carriers.  Over time, DCS who had several accounts within Florida began adding extra drivers to handle many of the intermodal loads.  JBI paid DCS for these moves like they were a dray carrier.  Eventually, entire DCS fleets were created solely to handle the intermodal volume.

Effective January 2014, the former DCS tractors, drivers, and managers began working within the JBI family.

Jacksonville - 45 drivers
Titusville - 14 drivers
Orlando - 6 drivers.

Pictured (in Channel 7 Action News manner) left to right are our Jacksonville managers:



Shannon Newsom - Load Planner
Nathan Melody - Ramp Manager
Matthew Curington - Fleet Manager
James Hastings - Fleet Manager









Welcome to the JBI Team!!!