J.B. Hunt partnership with Kodiak reaches 50,000-mile milestone

J.B. Hunt partnership with Kodiak reaches 50,000-mile milestone

On Wednesday, J.B. Hunt announced the completion of 50,000 autonomous long-haul trucking miles in a collaboration with autonomous trucking company Kodiak Robotics and Bridgestone Americas. The Kodiak autonomous trucks ship Bridgestone car tires between South Carolina and Dallas and have reported no accidents and 100% on-time pickup and delivery since launching in January.

FreightWaves’ Todd Maiden writes: “The approximately 750-mile hub-to-hub route takes 16 hours and uses trailers from J.B. Hunt 360box to execute the shipments. J.B. Hunt uses its 360 platform to identify eligible loads for the return trip from Dallas to Atlanta, limiting empty miles. Kodiak moves the backhauls autonomously with J.B. Hunt making the final delivery.”

The approach uses a driver for the first and final mile and an autonomous truck for the middle-mile transit. The trip begins with J.B. Hunt picking up the load from the Aiken Bridgestone tire plant in Graniteville, South Carolina, and moving it to Kodiak’s Atlanta-area autonomous truckport in Villa Rica, Georgia. A Kodiak autonomous truck then completes the 750-mile leg from Villa Rica to Kodiak’s Lancaster, Texas, facility. During the transit, a two-person team of safety drivers oversees the operation of the autonomous truck. Finally, J.B. Hunt delivers the load from Lancaster to the Bridgestone distribution center in Roanoke, Texas.

LMI July data shows early signs of freight market recovery

The Logistics Managers’ Index recently released its July report. There was a dip in overall inventories, but its transportation indexes continued their recovery. The index values are 0 to 100, with a reading above 50 signaling an expansion and below 50 a contraction. Transportation prices rose 2.8 points to 63.8 in July, the highest reading since May 2022. Transportation capacity saw a slight increase of 0.9 points to 50.9 points. The 12.9-point gap between transportation prices and transportation capacity was from a combination of excess capacity contraction and higher demand from imports and manufacturing.

Regarding the overall index, there was sustained growth. FreightWaves’ Todd Maiden writes: “The overall LMI stood at 56.5 in July, 1.2 points higher than in June. The index has reflected growth in the supply chain for eight straight months and 11 of the past 12 months. The current reading is still below an all-time average of 61.9 for the 8-year-old dataset but much higher than the year-ago mark of 45.4, which was an all-time low.”

Continued positive movement in prices compared to capacity suggests that an upswing is on the horizon. The report adds, “We have now had a full quarter of Transportation Prices coming in above Transportation Capacity. It is highly likely that the freight recession has ended. There could be potential headwinds from a slowdown in imports or a black swan event; but absent those, and if current trends continue and seasonality holds, it is likely that the recession that has gripped the freight industry is moving towards its conclusion.”

Market update: Preliminary Class 8 net orders show seasonal weakness

ACT Research recently released its July preliminary Class 8 net orders data, which was in line with seasonal expectations. Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT Research, said in the release that, “Class 8 orders remained at directionally and seasonally expected levels in July. Historically, July is the worst month of the year for Class 8 orders, so it is awarded the biggest seasonal factor, nearly 24%. Applying that seasonal factor boosts July’s seasonally adjusted intake to 17,500 units, which results in a narrower 3.7% m/m decline.”

Vieth adds, “The headwinds that have been buffeting the US portion of the NA commercial vehicle industry did not diminish through 1H’24 and were arguably a touch worse at the start of the year’s second half.” Q2 earnings from public truckload carriers only showed nominal increases from Q1. Lower earnings means lower capex, and some carriers saw an increase in average age per tractor as they hold on to older tractors longer. Vieth concludes that, similar to June, July’s order data was more in line with ACT Research’s data-driven expectations.

Rival data firm FTR Transportation Intelligence reported a 6% month-over-month decline to 12,400 units in July. The report adds, “The decline is unsurprising given the strong order performance in the first five months of the year and the typically weak seasonal order period. After averaging nearly 16,000 units from April to June, orders have slowed to just under 15,000 units in the most recent three months.”

FreightWaves SONAR spotlight: DOE/EIA diesel price falls for fifth straight week

Summary: The Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration average retail diesel price fell for the fifth consecutive week to $3.755 per gallon, a decline of 1.3 cents a gallon from last week. The FreightWaves Diesel Truck Stop Actual Price per Gallon registered higher but also fell 2 cents per gallon week over week from $3.836 to $3.816. DTS is a more granular look at diesel fuel prices compared to the DOE, as DTS is weighted by the number of gallons purchased versus available retail price. Compared to the reported price each Monday by the DOE, DTS is calculated daily and includes purchasing gallons in a given market or nationwide.

Looking ahead, geopolitical tensions appear to be top of mind for oil markets. FreightWaves’ John Kingston writes, “Oil markets are dealing with the very real possibility that the simmering tensions in the Middle East that began with the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7 may be about to extend into impacting oil production given the prospect of some sort of “hot” war between Israel – which produces natural gas in the Mediterranean – and Iran, one of the largest oil producers in the world.”

If geopolitical events flare up and cause crude oil to rise or futures contracts to increase, expect an eventual increase in the price of diesel, as 51% of the retail price of a gallon of diesel comes from crude oil prices, according to the EIA. Kingston notes one positive for oil markets: Hurricane Debby’s landfall had no impact on U.S. crude oil output or refineries.