Hunt Still Area?s Top Truck Firm

The beasts of the highways are getting bigger.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. continued to dominate local trucking firms with $2.16 billion in operating revenue for 2000, a 6 percent increase from its 1999 total and 59 percent more than nearest competitor ABF Freight System Inc.

Lowell-based Hunt blankets the highways nationwide with 11,000 tractors and 45,000 trailers. Once again, Hunt sits well atop the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s annual trucking firms rankings.

We can only assume that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. still dominates on the private fleet side. But the Bentonville retail giant, which had just under 9,000 tractors and 24,300 trailers last year, did not return repeated calls from the Business Journal.

Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, which did supply its 2000 numers, was a distant second with only about a fourth of Wal-Mart’s 1999 fleet and about an eighth of its trailers.

Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems LLC of Fort Smith, formerly Treadco Inc., is a close third with 2,200 in its fleet this year.

Hunt was a distant in net income among the firms with $36.1 million in 2000, a 13 percent increase from its 1999 total. ABF, founded 46 years before Hunt in 1923, had a net income of $79.3 million. That was an increase of 32 percent from its 1999 totals.

P.A.M. Transportation Services Inc. of Tontitown came in fourth, but it suffered a small loss from the previous year in operating revenue (1 percent) and a 23 percent drop in net income. P.A.M. had enjoyed a 45 percent increase in operating revenue from 1998 to 1999.

Willis Shaw Express Inc. of Elm Springs is second only to ABF in age having been founded in 1938. But it also dropped slightly in operating revenue (2 percent).

Cannon Express Inc. had a 4 percent decrease in operating revenue, but after losing $500,000 in net income in 1999 the Springdale company rallied to earn $520,000 in 2000. Cannon ranked No. 6 among local firms.