Intermodal With JB Hunt

My experience with J.B. Hunt Intermodal as a regional driver has been a positive one. I work out of the Haslet, TX terminal but I think the experience should be similar to PA.

Here's the advantages of Intermodal:

1) Each assignment will have one stop at a customer location and one stop at the rail yard. Since the rail yard is streamlined for getting in and out, you basically don't count it as a stop. That means your stops are cut in half in comparison to most other trucking jobs, who have to make time consuming stops at both a shipper and a receiver. Furthermore, the rail yard pick up/drop is always a drop and hook. This drastically reduces live loading and hard appointment times.

2) In the case of J.B. Hunt in Haslet, TX, their terminal is right next to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) rail yard. Literally across the street. That means half the time you have a guaranteed place to park for your 10 hour breaks if your'e a regional driver, when you happen to be ending your day near the terminal. This takes a lot of stress out of trip planning and worrying where you'll go down for the night.

3) Although J.B. Hunt is a mega carrier, they are surprisingly non-bureaucratic. I've noticed a laid back environment while working here. My previous company was a burden in comparison, speaking about how many forms you had to fill out over simple tasks and all the rules you had to follow.

4) They literally serve hundreds of customers in any given region. However, the 80/20 rule does apply and so you're delivering to the same 10-20 customers most of the time. This allows you to gain familiarity with your route, customers, and removes a lot of stress in your working life. I found J.B. Hunt Intermodal to be far less stressful than my previous OTR gig with a different company.

5) You get 2 days off during the week. That is awesome. If they really want you to work a 6th day, they pay out incentive money of, say $200, on top of your regular pay for that 6th day. You can easily make $55K in the Texas region, though this varies with the other intermodal locations. That's pretty good considering it's only regional and you get 2 days off.

6) They also have local gigs in intermodal, though these require 1 year of experience. Regional intermodal gigs only require 3 months experience, and so that's where I started because I'm a relatively new driver.