IN Brief:
- J.B. Hunt says customers are running more tactical intermodal minibids as truckload capacity tightens.
- SONAR data cited with the company’s comments puts intermodal around 34% cheaper than truckload during the summer.
- J.B. Hunt’s main intermodal bid season begins in October, when current tactical conversions will face longer-term procurement decisions.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services is seeing a sharp increase in tactical intermodal bids as higher US truckload rates, fuel costs and tighter driver availability prompt shippers to reconsider which freight should remain on the road.
Executives speaking at Deutsche Bank’s Chicago Industrials Summit described the freight market as being in the early stages of a supply correction. Driver recruitment needs at J.B. Hunt are at their highest level since 2022, while the company says current conditions are creating the strongest road-to-rail conversion opportunity it has seen in a decade.
Stacey Griffin, senior vice-president of pricing for intermodal at J.B. Hunt, described the current period as the “summer of many minibids” as customers look for ways to mitigate increases in truckload rates. Those smaller procurement exercises allow shippers to reallocate selected lanes or volumes without waiting for a full annual transport tender.
The conversion case is being strengthened by several factors at once. FreightWaves reports that small trucking operators have continued to leave the market after a prolonged period of poor economics, while enforcement changes and higher fuel prices have added pressure to available driver and carrier capacity. Large fleets are seeing better equipment utilisation and stronger contractual renewals, but recruitment is becoming a constraint on further expansion.
Intermodal uses road capacity differently. Trucks still handle the drayage legs at origin and destination, but rail carries the long-haul portion of the movement. On suitable lanes, the shipper therefore depends on long-distance driver capacity for a smaller share of the journey than it would with door-to-door truckload transport.
Pricing is widening the incentive. SONAR data cited alongside J.B. Hunt’s comments put intermodal at about 34% cheaper than truckload during the summer. That is well above historical savings of roughly 10% to 15% in the truck-competitive eastern US and around 25% on western transcontinental lanes.
The figures are market indicators rather than a promise that every lane will produce the same saving. Distance, terminal access, drayage costs, rail schedules, equipment availability and service requirements all affect the individual comparison. Freight that is short-haul, highly time-sensitive or poorly aligned with intermodal terminals can remain better suited to truck even when the national pricing gap is wide.
The minibid activity is notable because large transport allocations normally move on a slower procurement cycle. Annual bids establish most contracted lane volumes, with tactical exercises used when service or market pricing changes materially between tenders. A surge in minibids suggests truckload economics have moved far enough for shippers to revisit mode choice before their main contract dates.
J.B. Hunt’s formal intermodal bid season begins in October. Around 10% of annual contracts are repriced in the fourth quarter, with the rest spread across the first three quarters. Current truckload increases therefore have not yet flowed through the whole intermodal book, leaving room for the pricing gap to narrow as contracts renew.
The company also reports record intermodal volumes across its network coming out of the downturn, giving it a larger operating base as the market tightens. Rail service quality is another part of management’s argument: high truck rates and fuel prices provide limited conversion value if intermodal performance is too inconsistent for shippers to rely on the alternative.
Capacity can still become a constraint if conversion accelerates. Railroads, terminals, chassis pools and drayage fleets all have to absorb additional freight. A rapid shift away from truckload can therefore move pressure into intermodal nodes rather than remove it from the supply chain altogether.
For procurement teams, the immediate opportunity is lane selection. Long-haul, repeatable freight with predictable pickup and delivery windows is the obvious place to test a wider price gap, while irregular or service-critical freight may justify staying on the road. Minibids allow that assessment to be made selectively rather than forcing a wholesale network redesign.
The autumn tender season will show whether the summer conversions persist. If truckload capacity remains tight and rail service holds, some tactical allocations are likely to become longer-term intermodal commitments. If road capacity loosens again, the price differential can narrow quickly enough to reverse part of the shift.
J.B. Hunt is entering that process with customers already testing the economics rather than waiting for the annual calendar. The more consequential signal is not that intermodal is cheaper today, but that shippers are reopening lane decisions early because the relative cost of truck capacity has changed enough to justify the work.
