WASHINGTON — Two J.B. Hunt Transport Services senior executives expressed hope for a surge in freight markets later this year while cautioning that current conditions remain “fragile.”
Chief Financial Officer Brad Delco told an investor conference today (March 17) that the freight market remains fragile because customers are signaling a mixture of forecasts that include stronger, weaker, and unchanged conditions.
Roughly half of J.B. Hunt’s $12 billion in revenue and slightly more than half of its profit last year came from its intermodal division. Its 2025 results were little changed from the prior year in a lackluster national freight market that has shown some signs of life this year in the form of slightly higher intermodal volume and rising trucking spot rates.
“Customers are still comfortable that they are going to recover,” said Darren Field, president of intermodal. “Inventories are comfortable for shippers, given the way the supply chain has functioned and the high level of carrier service. It wouldn’t take a lot of new demand to move customer inventory to a place where it isn’t quite where they want it. That’s why we call it a fragile environment.”
The freight market in 2026 has created more spot market opportunities than the second half of last year, Delco said, but the recent rise in spot market rates hasn’t been reflected in contract freight margins, which is another sign of fragility.
While there was some economic uncertainty, Field was positive about one facet of intermodal.
“All railroads’ service during my career (30 years) has never been better than it is now,” he said. He praised railroads for providing for the highest levels of consistency and reliability in today’s market.
Field also stressed market conditions a slightly different way.
“There is significant competition in the environment not to lose any share,” Field said. “There is not a single entity out there who has a margin that makes them happy.”
Field repeated some familiar advantages of intermodal, such as giving customer a price hedge at a time when prices could be challenged by inflation or other factors.
A particular area of attention now is fuel cost, Field said, explaining that market conditions haven’t changed structurally yet despite the fuel price surge since the war with Iran began. One advantage for intermodal, he noted, was that the fuel surcharge for intermodal service typically is about 50% lower than for all-highway moves.
Meanwhile, the supply of truck drivers continues to tighten amid more strict Department of Transportation enforcement. “It is an interesting time,” Delco said, because enforcement has led to a measurable reduction in available truck drivers.
An estimated 20,000 drivers will lose their commercial license in a 12-month period ending next month because they lack English proficiency.
Nearly 200,000 drivers have been removed because of domicile and registration. The net result of those two steps will reduce the driver corps by about 5%, he said.
That reduction could be as much as 12% if enforcement also catches truck drivers without a CDL or drivers from outside the U.S. who haul freight illegally in this country.
Steps to regulate truck driving schools already have made significant reductions.
Delco also said that driver supply could be affected if legislation that curtails truck driver licensing for undocumented immigrants becomes law, perhaps later this year through reauthorization of Department of Transportation funding.
Another major unknown, Hunt officials believe, is the outcome of a Supreme Court case involving whether freight brokers are liable for accidents and injuries when they hire a carrier involved in an accident.
Delco and Field appeared at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference.
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
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