Hunt to Drop Cabovers in $1 Billion Deal

J.B. Hunt Transport Services will spend more than $1 billion over five years to convert its fleet of 9,000 cabover truck tractors to conventional tractors, company officials said today.

TT file photo
J.B. Hunt cabover tractor.

Roughly three years after its celebrated 33% driver pay raise, the Lowell-based truckload company will take delivery in September of 800 Freightliner Century Class conventionals, with 3,000 more to come next year, in an attempt to attract drivers.

With the decisions by Wal-Mart Stores and Schneider National earlier this year to abandon the cabover and adopt conventional tractors, Hunt was the last major bastion of the cabover in this country.

Freightliner has been aggressively marketingits Argosy cabover model, and Hunt had placed an order for 1,750 Argosies in May of last year. Freightliner said the Argosy had overcome many of the drawbacks drivers had seen in the cabover, such as poor visibility and noise.

"They are getting away from the Argosy mainly because of driver retention," said George Brooks, vice president of research and development at Hunt. "There was some excitement [among drivers] by the move to the Argosy, but not like the excitement generated by the move to these conventional trucks."

In addition to switching over to conventional tractors, Hunt is also doing away with its practice of "slip-seating" trucks. As of Labor Day weekend, drivers will be able to stay with the same truck instead of having to switch to another for each run, if they take no more than four days off each month.

"Now there's no real excuse not to drive for J.B. Hunt," said Timothy Quillin, an analyst with Stephens Inc. in Little Rock, Ark. "The question is: Who's left out there to buy the Argosies from Freightliner?"

"We still see a tremendous amount of interest in the Argosy," said Freightliner spokesman Chris Brandt. "We showed it at several trade shows this year, and we expect the product to do very well domestically."

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