77 J.B. Hunt drivers honored for millions of miles of safe driving

Lowell-based carrier J.B. Hunt Transport Services honored 77 drivers with 2 million, 3 million and 4 million safe miles, and awarded nearly $1 million in bonuses for reaching the number of safe miles in the past year.

Since 1996, the company has given nearly $27 million in bonuses to nearly 3,500 drivers with at least 1 million safe miles, said Craig Harper, executive vice president and chief operations officer. The company has hosted a celebration to honor the drivers since 2001, and it’s highlighted by the Million Mile Walk of Fame in which the drivers descend four floors of stairs in Building B at the company’s corporate office. More than 2,000 corporate employees standing along the stairs and in the lobby of the building applauded the drivers and offered them handshakes, high fives or hugs as they made their way down.

Before lunch, co-founder Johnelle Hunt arrived to greet the drivers. After the event, Harper emphasized the importance of not seeing only truck numbers and alpha codes, which are numbers associated with the drivers.

“I want them to see names. I want them to see mom and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, brothers, sisters and cousins. It’s people.”

He explained the industry hasn’t done a good enough job of respecting the drivers time and getting a truck unloaded and loaded when a driver arrives for a load.

“It’s the only job I know of in America where when someone shows up to perform the work that they’re hired to do, that you’re told go to out back and wait,” he said. “We just need the country to see the importance again of what transportation does. It’s so critical. Everything we do every day, it came to you by a truck at some point.”

It takes a driver about 10 years to reach 1 million miles. “If you’ve done 4 million miles, you’ve taken 16 trips to the moon,” Harper said.

The company has nine drivers who’ve reached 4 million safe miles, and three of them attended the event Tuesday. Drivers with 4 million safe miles receive a $40,000 bonus. Drivers with safe miles haven’t been involved in a crash or incident that causes damage to the truck or trailer in those miles. A trailer door ding would be considered an accident, Harper said. The company has recognized drivers with 1 million safe miles dating back to 1971. These drivers are listed on J.B. Hunt’s Million Mile Wall in Building C, the corporate office tower that opened in July 2017.

“They’re out there every day hauling all the products that we see,” he said. “They don’t get a lot of thank yous, and they’re navigating safely up and down the interstate with the motoring public. It can be a lonely life at times. You’re out there by yourself in the cab. Even with the local drivers, if they need to go home and take care of something like the rest of us, they can’t just run home for two hours or whatever.”

Regional drivers sometimes spend a couple nights away from home each week, and over-the-road drivers might be away from home for two or three weeks at a time. Harper compared the work of a truck driver to someone in the military. More than 20% of the carrier’s drivers are veterans, he said. The company has a goal to hire 10,000 veterans by 2020.

The trucking industry hauls 70.6% of all tonnage carried by the transportation sector in the United States, including manufactured and retail goods, according to trade organization American Trucking Associations. In 2016, trucks hauled 10.5 billion tons of freight and carriers collected $676.2 billion, or 79.8% of total revenue earned in the transportation sector. In March, the ATA’s seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index fell 1.1%, from February. The index rose 6.3%, from March 2017. In the first quarter of 2018, the index rose 7.4%, from the same period in 2017.

“Despite a softer March and February, truck freight tonnage remains solid as exhibited in the year-over-year increase of 6.3%,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “While I expect the pace of growth to continue moderating in the months ahead, if for no other reason than year-over-year comparisons will become more difficult as tonnage snapped back in May of 2017, the levels of freight will remain good going forward.”