b'6American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comJ.B. Hunt Intermodal turnaround expectedCarrier is adding capacity in anticipation of freight rebound.By Peter Buxbaum, AJOTThefirsthalfof2022the second half of last year, as represented the peak of pan- consumers shifted their spend-demicconsumerdemand,ing back towards services and leading to spikes in interna- importerswerestuckwith tional freight volumes, which,excess inventory. The inven-inturn,fedintoaboomintory destocking cycle resulted theintermodalsector.Nowin a decline in import activity, that freight volumes are sink- saidDarrenField,executive ingorapproachingpre- vice president and president of pandemicnormalization,asintermodal at J.B. Hunt Trans-somewouldsayitsnotportServices.Whileweare surprisingthatintermodalhesitant to suggest the presence wouldsufferthesamefate,ofanygreenshoots,wesaw evenforanindustryleaderevidencefromcustomersin likeJ.B.Hunt,atruckingJune that the destocking trend company whose name is syn- has moderated.onymouswithintermodal.Alookatthenumbers But its important to keep in(TURNAROUNDcontin-mind that year-over-year vol- ued on page 17)umes, revenues, and income for the first half of this year will inevitably compare that muchlessfavorablytothe record-breaking2022.J.B.Farm toHuntsintermodalsegment accountedfor47%oftotal revenue and 60% of operat- Server Farm:ing income last year.Second quarter 2023 inter-modalvolumeatJ.B.Hunt decreased7%comparedtoData Driven Tech Insures Freshnessthe same period in 2022, lead-ing to a 19% drop in revenue and a 29% plummet in oper-ating income for the quarter. At least from a numbers per-spective,thesecond-quarter financial statistics were worse thanJ.B.Huntsintermodal performance numbers for the first quarter of 2023. The second-quarter num-bersfrustratedtheexpecta-tions of Wall Street analysts, whowereexpectingamore moderatedecrease,butdid nottempertheirenthusiasm for the companys near-term prospects,especiallycon-sideringthatrevenuesand earningsforthecorporation exceeded2019snumbers. J.B.Huntcorporateleaders arealsoexpectingafreight rebound and a brighter future.Besidesthedropinthe high-levelintermodalnum-bers,thecarrieralsoexpe-rienceda13%decreasein gross revenue per load in the secondquarter,lowerrates, andhigherdriverandnon-driver wages and benefits. ButJ.B.Huntwithan anti-cyclicalstrategy,has alsobeenaddingcapacity during this years downturn,Real Time Data Food Waste Remote ClimateEnd to Endacquiring 326 new pieces of& Tracking Mitigation Controls Telematicstrailingequipmentduring the second quarter, and over 1,000duringthefirstquar-ter, foreseeing a freight turn-around on the horizon.Its not just the boxf rEigHtr EcEssioN aNd its our approach to offering sustainable fleet solutions bundled with leading edge technology that makesi NtErmodal the difference.Intermodalspoorper- seacubecontainers.comformance during the first halfVisit www.seacubecontainers.com to learn more.of the year came on the heels ofafreightdownturnduring BSYA 1041 SeaCube Server Farm AJOT 8x10.indd 1 8/9/23 1:43 PM'