Dive Brief:
- J.B. Hunt Transport Services and start-up Overroute co-developed artificial intelligence technology over the past year to streamline freight flow processes. Now, the tech will soon be available to other logistics companies and carriers, Alex Reed, CEO of the tech firm, said in an interview with Trucking Dive.
- The tech firm took another step toward advancing and deploying its technology by raising $5.5 million in funding, which will be invested in its product, per a Sept. 9 announcement.
- In Overroute’s July launch announcement, J.B. Hunt noted AI agents developed by the Fayetteville, Arkansas-based tech partner were in use across all of the carrier's business units, working on millions of loads. Contributing to the development of the AI tools gave J.B. Hunt an opportunity to use emerging technology and apply it at real scale, carrier COO Nick Hobbs said.
Dive Insight:
Finding operational efficiencies has been a priority for J.B. Hunt as it has worked to position itself to capitalize on a recovering freight market.
EVP of Finance and CFO Brad Delco said during the carrier’s Q2 earnings call with analysts that while market fundamentals have shifted, lowering the company’s costs remains one its most important companywide initiatives.
“Over the past year, we've removed over $135 million of structural costs from our company, and we continue to look for opportunities to simplify processes, improve productivity, increase asset utilization and leverage technology to automate work,” he said on the call.
Executives did not mention the company’s work with Overroute during the call with analysts but noted the carrier would continue leveraging its investments in people, technology and capacity to create sustainable competitive advantages.
Overroute said in the July announcement that its technology was integrated into J.B Hunt’s existing systems to read live data and support operators in managing customer communications without requiring them to change tools or workflows.
“Overroute is an example of a broader strategy where we’re using AI as a force multiplier within our expansive network to reduce friction and improve how freight gets executed every day,” Hobbs said in the announcement.
Overroute emerged through J.B. Hunt’s work with UP.Labs, an initiative focused on launching startups to address challenges faced in freight transportation, per the July press release.
Reed said Overroute could not take credit for contributing to recent efficiency gains by J.B. Hunt, but he indicated work by his company may start showing dividends for the carrier later this year.
Working with J.B. Hunt was an opportunity to develop tools for a large organization to help it find ways to streamline operations, Reed said.
He said the carrier sought ways to help improve accuracy, which in turn would boost efficiencies. This could then allow workers to spend less time on simple tasks such as reaching out to drivers to check on estimated times of arrival, Reed said.
Another major area addressed involved assisting the workforce with being able to look up information more quickly so more time could be spent elsewhere.
Once the Overroute team familiarized themselves with J.B. Hunt’s operations, they began looking into ways to automate certain tasks, Reed said. The goal was to free up time for the carrier’s workers so they could focus on building and strengthening relations with shippers.
“Helping those folks as they solve those problems every day at the front line, that’s where we want to end up,” Reed said. “I think that’s where you’ll get the biggest leverage of the people, but then also impact the asset use.”
As Overroute continues its work with J.B. Hunt, it is also speaking with other carriers to improve its technology, Reed said. While his background is in manufacturing, Reed said his past experience was helpful in developing technology to streamline processes for the trucking industry.
There are many hurdles in shipping when you take factors including, weather, people and equipment into account, Reed said.
“We just started the journey," Reed said of Overroute's work with J.B. Hunt, noting how deploying technology enterprise-wide over the past year is just the beginning.
