J.B. Hunt Places $70 Million Equipment Order

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell has ordered containers and chassis worth more than $70 million from Wabash National Corp.

Hunt ordered 6,000 53-foot domestic containers and a smaller number of container chassis. The containers are stackable, feature an uninterrupted sidewall and interior dimensions, and closely resemble conventional trailers. The DuraPlate containers will be the first 53-foot units in Hunt’s fleet.

Wabash is headquartered in Lafayette, Ind.

“We have been delighted with the performance and quality of our large fleet of DuraPlate van trailers in our truck business unit,” said Kirk Thompson, president and CEO of Hunt. “Now we have the opportunity to not only convert our intermodal container fleet to exclusively 53-foot equipment, but to do it by replacing our 48-foot equipment with stackable 53-foot DuraPlate containers. Our intermodal customers will have North America’s largest fleet of exclusively 53-foot containers at their disposal.”

• The Home Depot of Atlanta, announced on Sept. 10 that it has expanded its five-year logistics contract with Hunt. The home improvement retailer — which boasts 1,256 stores in 48 states and seven Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Chile and Argentina — has chosen Hunt’s Dedicated Contract Services division to be the primary transportation logistics provider for its new Rialto, Calif., transit facility.

J.B. Hunt DCS manages outbound shipping from this distribution point and is a key provider of some inbound vendor freight services. The transit facility concept, which provides crossdock services, was initiated by The Home Depot in 1996 when J.B. Hunt was selected as the provider for The Home Depot’s first transit facility, which was in Philadelphia.