March 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Supply chains are the backbone of effective business operations, and understanding this complex system can greatly benefit any professional in the industry. In this engaging episode featuring Nick Gowen, Vice President of 360 Box at JB Hunt, we delve into the evolving landscape of logistics and how one of the industry's leaders adapts and thrives amidst challenges.
Nick shares valuable insights into the operational strategies that define 360 Box, emphasizing a unique blend of traditional trucking techniques and emerging industry standards. His firsthand experiences illustrate the critical importance of agility and customer-focused leadership in navigating supply chain disruptions, particularly highlighted during the pandemic. Discover how open communication and a people-first mindset significantly enhance customer relationships and operational success.
Listeners will learn about the innovative practices JB Hunt employs to ensure efficiency, including the integration of external capacity to meet the increasing demand for reliable freight movement. The episode also highlights Nick's personal journey through various roles within JB Hunt, showcasing how his persistence and dedication contributed to the company's growth.
Throughout our conversation, Nick reinforces core values such as integrity, respect, and excellence, which underpin JB Hunt’s operations and drive their enduring success. By focusing on these principles, companies can foster strong relationships with their employees and customers, crucial for sustained growth in today’s competitive landscape.
Join us for this insightful exploration into logistics and supply chain management—whether you're a seasoned professional or new to the field, there’s something valuable for everyone. Subscribe to our podcast for more insightful discussions, and let us know your thoughts on this episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in
Biddenville.
I'm Andy Wilson and I'm thehost today and thank you so much
.
You know I'll say during thepodcast how much you have done
and we're so grateful becausenow, because of you, we're now
viewed in over 90 countries andthat is phenomenal.
So, thank you, keep sharing,keep sending me messages.
(00:29):
I want to hear from you, let meknow how we're doing and any
suggestions you have.
I have got such a phenomenalguest today, nick.
Welcome, andy.
Thank you for having me here.
It's an honor to be here.
It is so good.
Not only Nick and I have thisopportunity, but we're great
friends and we do something thatwe love and that's cycling
(00:51):
together.
I'm a Christian.
Well, here's the truth.
Everyone, I got to say it upfront.
I see Nick twice on a ride.
Okay, at the beginning and theend that's where I see Nick, and
in the middle I can't even seehim.
He's so far ahead of me.
But anyway, it's fun.
Nick, we have a great time,don't we?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
we do have a great time hitting the uh dirt work
roads of northwest arkansas, Iknow it is.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
We ride road and ride gravel, but we were talking the
other day.
We just love gravel now becausethe traffic and there's so much
calmer out there with thefarmers I think the the traffic,
the scenery.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I think I was telling you last week I rode through
the summer and I thought thedust would be a major issue, but
I really, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, I'm so glad you're here.
Nick Galvin is the vicepresident of 360 Box JB Hunt,
one of the most phenomenalcompanies there is in the world.
We're going to talk about thisgreat company.
We're also going to talk aboutNick and his role and
responsibilities, on what you doat JB Hunt and then some other
things, and I think you're goingto really enjoy this deep dive,
(01:54):
if you will, into supply chain.
You know supply chain iscritical.
We learned very at the pandemicwhat happens when that supply
chain is interrupted, and welearned that we're going to get
into all this kind of stuff andhow Nick and his team keeps the
product moving throughout theworld now, and not only on the
(02:16):
roadways in the US but abroadand on the trains and everything
else, and we'll get into someof that kind of stuff.
Nick, how's that sound?
Okay, good.
So, nick, vice president, 360box operations, talk to us a
little bit about that.
And then what I want to do iscome back and I just want to get
(02:36):
into how you got the jb huntand I know there's a story there
and then your journey over 30years at JB Hunt.
We want to talk about that, butlet's give our viewers and
listeners an opportunity.
What is 360 Box?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Sure, andy, thanks for asking 360 Box when you
think about JB Hunt, that is ourlegacy truck line.
That's what it started with.
It was Mr Hunt and it was atrailer and it was making
deliveries to our customers.
As he grew he added trailersand he added trailers to his
(03:15):
network.
That 360 box is the trailerportion and then we work to
provide the power portion,whether that's through our own
assets, through independentcontractors or outsourced
brokerage power.
But it's kind of a cool place tobe.
You know, if you go back andlook at what JB Hunt Truckload
(03:36):
became over the last 20 years orso, it's kind of taking a
backseat to intermodal.
We've seen a ton of intermodalgrowth.
I know you're familiar withthat and it's been a great
product for our customers, forlow cost, great service, et
cetera.
So the truck line took abackseat to that.
It's taken a little bit of abackseat to our dedicated, which
(03:56):
is private fleet replacement orprivate fleet augmentation, and
a little bit to our brokerageproduct.
And what was awesome in probably2017, 2018, we were all sitting
around kind of talking abouthow do we kind of revitalize,
how do we put some fire behindour traditional truck line and
the idea of 360 Box withLawrence.
(04:18):
So what 360 Box does is itlooks at power that operates
under our authority, but it alsolooks at additional capacity
out there and it gave us theopportunity to grow really fast.
So think about it this way Ifyou are dealing with a
traditional asset provider andyou have 10 loads that are
(04:41):
coming out of Kansas Citytomorrow and you have nine
trucks landing there, that's aproblem.
Only nine of the loads aregoing to get covered.
You're going to be at 90%on-time service at the best.
So our idea was let's not onlyuse these trucks that run under
our authority, let's open it upto basically outsource capacity.
(05:05):
Now that outsource capacity,they've got to meet our
standards, they've got to beinsured properly, they have to
be a safe carrier, they have tobe a respectful carrier.
And when we opened that up, wewere really able to accelerate
with growth and that kind ofpaired with the pandemic.
So when the pandemic started,wow, what a scary time.
(05:28):
Yeah, uh, starting up a newproduct, having the pandemic
going on, we had sent all of ourpeople to the house and we're
all working remotely.
In the first couple of monthsthere really wasn't a lot of
freight.
We had had a ton of carriersflock to us and really covet the
freight that we had.
But as we came out of that andwe saw stimulus and we saw the
(05:50):
demand and we saw theinventories get so far behind,
we had a great platform toreally grow.
360 box and it allowed us to.
It allowed us to lean into thatexternal outsource capacity,
allowed us to grow rapidly.
I think it was great because itlet a lot of our customers uh
(06:12):
see the value, uh, that value,of that model.
So, um, the long story short360 box it is the legacy truck
line in j?
Uh, but it's so much more nowthat we won't lean into that
external capacity.
Uh, 360 comes from our app 360,which is our carrier facing and
(06:32):
our customer facing app Uh, butit's uh, it's been hugely
successful product Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
That.
That is a great overview.
Uh, we have to go back and talkabout your founders a bit,
because the story is sophenomenal.
You know, in Northwest Arkansaswe're located, we have Walmart
stores, we have JB Hunt and wehave Tyson Foods and our
University of Arkansas, whichwe're so proud of.
But you know, it's amazing whatwe have here in our area, isn't
(07:05):
it?
And now, who is your customeron 360 Box?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Basically, our customer is anybody that
honestly wants to move a product.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, so you're that broad then.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So we're that broad.
Okay, what I would say?
That's limited to truckloadcapacity.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
We will do multi-stop .
Oh, you will.
So if you're asking for LTL, Isee where you're going here.
Yeah, if you're asking for LTLinside 360 box, I don't have an
answer for that.
Inside JB Hunt as a whole, wewould have an answer for that.
So my customer, what I'm reallylooking for, is somebody that
(07:47):
values the access to capacity,somebody that values a drop and
hook product that can be on thefront end of the load or the
back end of the load, or both.
Typically, when we're lookingat customers that want a drop
and hook product, they're tryingto plan their staffing around
(08:08):
unloading boxes and whatnot.
So that's kind of thedemographic of what we're
looking for.
Okay, got it, but full truckloaddrop and hook Good.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So when you get up in the morning and go to work,
maybe.
So what's what's your focus?
What do you work on?
What are your roles, yourresponsibilities?
How do you keep the freightmoving?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
yeah, I think, uh, there's there's a lot uh to that
.
I I think the number one thingis it really starts with my
people.
There's one I've got to holdthem accountable, but two I've
got to keep them happy.
So always kind of looking atthat and evaluating how are we
(08:57):
doing, how's our morale?
Things that I firmly believe inis, if you take care of your
people, your people will takecare of your carriers.
They'll take care of yourcustomers.
Your people will take care ofyour carriers, they'll take care
of your customers and they'lltake care of your stockholders.
So the mindset's always there inthe morning.
We want to make sure thateverybody gets started,
everybody has a great day, thateverybody understands what our
(09:18):
expectations are, what our goalsare.
There's a lot that I'm lookingat.
One I'm looking at our serviceto our customers the previous
day, how we're setting up forservice for our customers in the
day that we're in.
And then, you know, there's alot of times that we're looking
farther down the road from justmore of a strategic perspective.
(09:41):
But just in the day-to-dayoperations strategic perspective
, but just in the day-to-dayoperations.
It's really that people, it'sthe service side of it and it's
understanding, honestly, thebusiness part of the model.
Are we able to take care of ourcustomers?
Are we able to make a properreturn doing that?
Are we able to take care of ourcarriers and our people?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
able to take care of our carriers and our uh people
act this, this is 360 box the.
The truck drivers that thatthat that pull the trailers.
Are they independent or arethey within jb?
How does that?
How does your drivers work?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
so, uh, our mix of that is it.
It can vary why?
Okay, widely okay.
So you go back to the time ofthe pandemic.
Capacity was in such greatdemand.
We didn't have enough drivers,not at all, to do that.
So that ability to outsourcewas great and that really ran up
(10:37):
that outsource capacity toprobably north of 50% of our
capacity of 50% of our capacityRight now.
You know we've got we've got thevast majority of the capacity
operates under our authority,and then you've got a smaller
portion and I've got twoseparate groups that used
(10:58):
outsourced capacity.
One is just traditionalbrokerage and that's kind of
more just, that's kind of acatch-all.
It can be very consistent,though, when I say catch-all,
but it can catch that one-offload.
And then I have a group thatI'm also responsible for, called
PCS, power Capacity Solutions,and that's where we work with
(11:21):
outsourced carriers that don'toperate under our authority.
But we seek more long-termrelationships.
We want to bring them in, wewant to run them, we want to
dispatch them.
We want to make sure that theyalways have their case load so
it can ebb and flow If capacitydemands and we need to go to a
(11:43):
50-50 model that we can do that.
We typically don't live thereunless it's a high demand and a
high capacity situation.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It sounds like Nick, you're very focused on the
customer.
We are, and that's wonderful.
Your service there and I thinkthat's the thing that our
audience and viewers andlisteners can take away the
focus that 360 box JB Hunt hason that customer and you're
watching that, evaluating that,communicating with that in order
(12:14):
to get that freight from A to B, which is critical.
Okay, now inside of JB Hunt and, as I mentioned, we're going to
talk about JB Hunt more broadlyin a moment but inside of JB
Hunt, I know that you all do alot of Walmart business or
Target business and otherretailer business and I know
(12:36):
that could be somewhat outsideof what you work on every day.
But how does that go outside of360 box sort of it open up, if
you will, the window, how largejb hunt does and some other
things that jb hunt works?
So you mentioned intermodemquickly earlier.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Maybe talk some about that yeah, so uh, honestly,
andy, in my world, thosecustomers, uh, the retail
customers, that's a big part ofwhat I do every day.
But you do see a variety ofcustomers just kind of smothered
throughout the organization andthose can be very specialty
(13:14):
customers or they can beretailers, or the consumer
product companies that aresupplying those retailers.
Intermodal just a little bitabout that Intermodal we are the
largest provider of 53-footcontainers and 53-foot capacity.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
If I'm sitting in a train crossing, I'm seeing a lot
of JB Hunt trucks on thosetrains.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
There's a significant amount of capacity, that's for
sure.
Um, you know, we uh it's been aincredible ride for us.
It was.
It was an idea that mr hunt uhhad back in the late 80s and uh
worked with, uh worked with thebnsf uh to to really a handshake
(14:05):
agreement to get the productkicked off.
I spent about six years inintermodal and it was crazy to
watch the amount of growth thatwe saw.
When I went there, thatorganization had about 23,000
containers and when I left ithad about 60,000 containers and
when I left it had about 60,000containers.
(14:26):
So just uh, it's been a rapidgrowth product for us.
What's great about it?
Once you can work the transitcause, you're going to have a
little longer transit, uh,especially in a longer length of
halls compared to a traditionaltruck, uh.
But once you can work thattransit into your supply chain
and understand the consistencyand the reliability around that,
(14:48):
it gives you the opportunity toreally have that consistency in
a product, that service thatyou need, and it gives you the
opportunity to do that really ata lower price.
So when you think about thevalue proposition around that,
it is a it's a phenomenalproduct.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Right, it really is.
I don't think I ever told youabout the time I got to go to
Texas and Burlington, northernSanta Fe, and got to look inside
and be inside their office andwatch some of the movement
throughout the country.
I won't ever forget howphenomenal it was to be inside
that space.
Were you up in the controlspace?
(15:27):
Yes, I was in the control towerand it was remarkable.
Yeah, and so we'll have to talkmore about that someday.
Okay, nick, I'm 30 years at JBHunt.
Yes, sir, you went to school atUniversity of Arkansas and you
got your master's at John BrownUniversity.
Is that correct?
Talk about your journey throughthe school and your journey to
(15:51):
JB Hunt and some of the things,because you have a fascinating
career Prior to getting there.
Well, I know about it, but, aswe visited, talk to us about
that journey, because I thinkthere's a lot of people that
will be leaning in to have apassion for a career in this
space.
So talk about that, yourjourney.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, it's it's.
It's quite a journey, but whatit's funny.
I was talking with my wife theother night and we were kind of
laughing.
We're talking about when do wewant to retire?
And one of the things I lookback when I go back and look at
my college career kind of feellike I took four years of
retirement at some point duringcollege.
(16:33):
So it took me about eight yearsto get through to undergraduate
.
I really didn't know what Iwanted to do to get through to
undergraduate.
I really didn't know what Iwanted to do.
I think law had kind of crossedmy mind and the degree I was
closest to was a degree inphilosophy.
It was a good segue into law,just from the basis of arguments
(16:58):
and logic et cetera.
So I was that guy that got thephilosophy degree and uh, got
out of college again after eightyears somewhere.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You're serious about eight years, right, I guess?
Okay, that's okay, I'm not.
I'm laughing with you.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I, I mean this, this is good story I'm like now, but
I wasn't around at the time anduh, yeah, I honestly came out of
college in the middle ofrecession and, uh, you know, um,
I wasn't that great of astudent and law school was
proven to be a little harder toget into than I anticipated.
(17:35):
Uh, so we're working on a planB for that.
Long story short.
You know, it was just it wasrunning up and down Highway 71
at the time dropping off resumesat Tyson, jb Hunt and Wal-Mart,
it seemed like for months andfinally I got a call back from
JB Hunt and I got hired by themand got actually, first job I
(18:04):
ever took with them was called afreight handling coordinator
and I was like, well, that's gota good sound to it.
I like that.
I can be a freight handlingcoordinator.
And I go in and like, tell meabout this job.
And what they said is, well,you're going to come in at
midnight.
I said, okay, you're going toget off at 830 in the morning
(18:29):
and you are basically going tohelp our truck drivers find
people to help them unloadtrucks.
And they did not pay a lot ofmoney I mean, they did pay more
than minimum wage but I was like, okay, I will, uh, I'll do that
, uh, and and I'm I needed a job.
Uh, you've kind of been workingaround restaurant industry and
(18:49):
whatnot.
It's like it's just a foot inthe door and, uh, I'm gonna from
there.
I'll try to figure out what Ican do to get into a management
training program, decide if I'mgoing to go back to school or
not.
So I started there, andy, andit was an interesting job.
You know, typically if a truckdriver is hiring, they're called
(19:10):
lumpers.
They're on low trucks, they'reprobably not in a good mood
because they're now their dayhas interrupted.
They've got to contact some.
They've got to call me.
I've got to go find a lumper,have to negotiate a price with
burke.
I've got to make sure thatlumper shows up.
So it's a, it's a, it's a.
(19:31):
It can be a pretty challengingprocess and, uh, you get a lot
of lively language with it, andso I got into that.
I started thinking, well, Idon't want to do this forever.
So you know what's my next move?
And I found a gentleman andstill around.
His name's eric carolla.
He runs our management trainingprogram and I went to see eric
(19:51):
said hey, eric, can I get inthis management training program
?
And he was like well, do youhave a transportation logistics
degree?
It's like no, sir.
He said do you have three yearsof transportation experience?
I said no, sir.
He said okay.
He said did you have athree-pointer above at college?
And I laughed and said no, sir,I did not.
(20:12):
He said well, when you get oneof those, come back and see me.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
We both know where well he's a great guy.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
He's a good, oh yeah yeah, so, uh, I'm pretty if.
If there's one thing I am, it'sI'm persistent.
So, yeah, you know, wait two orthree weeks and I send eric
another email, or uh, we had aninternal system we didn't have
email, but, um, but I would, Iwould send him messages, I would
try to catch him in the halland I would just kind of
(20:40):
literally wear him out andfinally one day he sends me a
message.
He was like I'm going to giveyou one shot at this.
He got an interview to go intodedicated contract services and
I went in.
I sat down to interview with agentleman at the time that was
the president of dedicatedcontract services, unbeknownst
(21:01):
to me.
He had an undergraduate degreein philosophy and, uh, he sat
down, he saw my resume.
The first question he asked mewas who my favorite philosopher
was.
And you know, I I didn't have afavorite philosopher.
I was just getting out ofcollege and I threw something
out and we had, we had a20-minute conversation, uh,
knowing that, but, andy,honestly, the career really took
(21:23):
off from there.
I was able to get intodedicated operations.
I did have a significant mathbackground in college and was
able to kind of segue that intoengineering roles, spent
multiple years in dedicatedcontract services in an
engineering capacity, intermodalfrom a operations and a pricing
(21:45):
capacity.
Eventually to our Blankridgegroup had the opportunity this
was kind of a wild story too,but had the opportunity to
really help us establish ourfield footprint and was a part
of opening 32 field offices forthat group which was cool and uh
and helping launch our 360 uhplatform and then now inside
(22:10):
this uh 360 bunks yes, sir,thanks for sharing that journey.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Um, if you win it, well, no, it's really good,
because not everyone immediatelyworks.
But if you were to look backand give some advice today
someone young that's listeningto you today and they are
similar like you, okay, whatwould you tell them?
(22:39):
What are a couple of things yousay.
These are things you have to do.
What would that be?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah.
So there's a handful of things.
The first thing that I do inany job is find out what's
important.
What are the goals, what arethe metrics that we're going to
be measured by?
I think that's number one,because if you don't understand
that, you're going to have ahard time satisfying the needs
(23:04):
of your leadership.
So understand the metrics.
The second thing that I'vealways done, and I still try to
do now, is, outside of work, tryto take time weekly, biweekly,
to reflect on what it is you'reworking on and are you putting
the effort in the right places?
(23:25):
Does it line up with yourmetrics, with your objectives?
Does it line up with yourvalues?
If it doesn't, how do younavigate around that?
And I think a lot of that.
Andy is trying to figure outhow to work smarter.
And if you take time to justkind of ponder, I've found that
(23:49):
I've always been able to improvea process, improve a step, be
able to accomplish something.
That's probably the second thingthat I do.
And then I've got a saying thatI firmly believe in and this
happens a lot in transportation.
It probably happens a lot inevery environment, but things go
(24:09):
wrong.
So I've got a saying that isbad news sells best early.
And anyway, what I want to dowith that is, if I'm going to
have a problem, if I'm going tomiss a delivery, if I'm going to
miss a pickup, I want mycustomer to know as soon as they
can know.
That way, they may be mad at mefor missing that delivery, but
(24:30):
it gives them the opportunity torecover it with someone else.
The option is to say, hey, nick,I can reset that till tomorrow
and we're going to be okay, butit gives everybody an
opportunity to succeed.
Maybe not the way we wanted tosucceed, but if you're selling
that bad news early, it isgiving you the opportunity to
(24:52):
succeed.
Internally it's the same way.
If I've made a mistake or ifI've got a problem coming down
the pike, I want my boss to know.
I don't want him to beblindsided by his leadership.
So that's something I firmlybelieve in and I would say those
are really kind of the threethings I would say that are
important.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
That's great advice.
Yeah, and you mentioned earlierthat you're persistent.
Yes, and I think that'scritical.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You know you got to keep at it and you know you got
to keep at it, yeah, and youknow that brings us to, you know
, your founders, uh, mr hunt, uh, mr jb hunt and, um, his and
john l hunt, his partner.
Um, you know, when I moved herea long time ago, northwest
arkansas, uh, actually, thechurch I attended I attended was
(25:41):
Mr Hunt was there.
He was a member, and Mrs Huntand I I was, you know, in my
early thirties, and I rememberthe first time I met him he was
a towering guy with a big, atall guy with a cowboy hat on
and boots, and, and I don'tthink I quite ever seen one like
that, a hat on and boots, andand I don't think I quite ever
(26:05):
seen one like that.
But what I began to admire andwatch Mr Hunt, you know, from
afar, and and and then, um, youknow, unfortunately, his passing
it and, uh, you know it wasdevastating to this area, but
it's amazing how everyone at JBHunt, along with Mrs Hunt, has
stepped up and continued thegrowth.
And then later in my career, Igot the opportunity to meet Mrs
(26:29):
Hunt and spend some time withher and what she's done for this
area has been amazing, oh yeah,and for the world.
But the country, country, butit's just what.
So, as we look at theleadership, the foundation, talk
(26:50):
about the principles of JB Hunt.
The culture Talk about thatyeah.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
So yeah, when we really kind of talk about the
principles, the things that letus get things done, we really
talk about people, we talk aboutcapacity and we talk about
technology and the people sideof it.
Andy, I think and you comingfrom really the people side in
(27:14):
Walmart, the people side issomething that I think is
critically important.
And I think, JB Hunt, you knowyou look at me at 30 years and,
honestly, if you look acrossthat company, there are so many
people that have been there 20,25, 30, 35 years.
It is a great place to stay.
(27:35):
I have my best friends who arethere.
I don't know and I've said thisbefore, I don't even know if I
should say it on a podcast, butI don't know that transportation
is that intriguing.
I mean, you're moving a loadfrom point A to point B.
The thing that's kept me thereis, honestly, it's been the
people.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
And you know actually the people.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So, yeah, and we talk about that is is really kind of
one of our four tenants.
Uh, we, when we talk about ourvalues, we um, I got a great
story on one of these valueshere in a minute, but, uh, we
talked about integrity.
Uh, you know how we want tocome across, how we want to
(28:18):
behave.
Uh, we talk about respect.
Uh, and not that we want to berespected, but we want to behave
.
We talk about respect and notthat we want to be respected,
but we want to.
We want to be respectful of ourcarriers, we want to be
respectful of our customers.
We talk a lot about innovation.
Innovation, you know, you lookat the company.
It started as a.
(28:39):
We started Holland Chicken,Haltz, right, and now five
divisions and a ton oftechnology.
It's, it's definitely reallyhad a lot of innovation.
We talk about safety and whenyou've got as many trucks on the
road, when you've got as manyloads on the road, it is
(28:59):
inherently important for us tobe a safe carrier.
You know, that's our wife,that's our kids, that's our
friends, that's our familythat's running down the highway
next to an 80,000 pound truck.
So, no matter whether it's ourtruck or the side that I work on
the brokerage side.
I want to make sure that thatcarrier is being safe.
(29:21):
And then the final thing thatyou'll hear us talk about a lot
is excellence.
We want to be excellent in whatwe do.
We want to be excellent notonly in the service that we give
to our customer.
We want to be excellent in ourbilling.
We want to make sure that webill right the first time.
We want to be excellent in ourcommunications.
(29:42):
You know that bad news sellsbest early, so when you talk
about it, those are a lot of thekind of values and principles
that you, that we, talk aboutand that we hear about and that
we define as kind of our values.
But I think the you know themost important thing of course
(30:03):
is the people side and I've seenthat early in England since I
started at JB Hunt the peoplewhen I started.
I think about the KirkThompsons of the world.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Great guy.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, former CEO, former chairman of the board,
Kirk, had been there.
it seemed like forever when Istarted, but I noticed that a
lot the Mike Taylors, the JeffFrancos of the world.
There were people that had beenthere a long time and we did a
great job taking care of ourpeople.
I talked about the pandemicearly on and I remember sending
(30:36):
people home and I remember onegentleman in particular.
He'd been with the company fortwo weeks and, uh, you know I
was telling him hey, we're goinghome.
I know you don't know how to dothis job, I know you're brand
new.
Uh, and I can't imagine the youknow the fear.
He's right, how am I going todo this remotely?
(30:56):
But we landed, leaned into him,gave him the training we need.
We did that for several people,but people's always been at the
forefront of what we do.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
You know, nick, as I think about your company and the
people that you have mentioned,and you know, walmart and JB
Hunt have a lot of similarities.
You know, founded by twoindividuals in our area and then
and then grew to be the size,but yet the focus, what you
(31:33):
talked about is critical people,and that is what it's all about
.
And taking care of your people,making sure that they're ready
and equipped, and you know it'sreally about servant leadership,
isn't it?
At the end of the day, it'sbeing a servant to your people
and that's what you're talkingabout.
The culture and you side yourorganizations by serving others.
(31:56):
You know, we see that.
You know, I see that visibly.
You have a wonderful presidentCEO now and she does an
excellent job of you know what Isee her on LinkedIn and or
wherever we're talking aboutthose truck drivers, talking
about and honoring those truckdrivers.
Same with all the employeeassociates inside the
(32:17):
organization.
Shelly continues to drive thatmessage associates inside the
organization.
Now shelly continues to drivethat message down inside the
organization.
It's great when you have acompany that loves their people
and cares and takes care of thepeople, and that's what jb hunt
is it is, and you know I can'tsay enough about that.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
The culture is great.
It is, Honestly, it's a funplace to work at.
And I love to have fun, I loveto make money and it's just a
great place to do it, nick.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Just a great place to do it, nick.
Okay, thank you for sharingabout Box 360 Box.
Thank you for sharing aboutsome of your roles and
responsibilities and yourcustomers, and then, of course,
always enjoy the culturediscussion we just had around
(33:17):
your company For our viewers andlisteners.
If you were going to summarizea few things, how would you
summarize what we talked abouttoday?
How would you prioritize andsummarize around what you do,
what your company is all about?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Well, I hope I understand the question.
So really just a summary of theconversation.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah, here's another way.
If you were to summarize ourconversation, here are three
things that are most important,that I do every day or our
company does every day.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah, I'll go back to things that at least I think
are important.
Okay, sure One.
I think it's our people.
We have to, we have to do anexcellent job of taking care of
them Right, that's given them,you know, it's taken care of
them during the pandemic, andnot only in people.
(34:11):
It's giving them theopportunity to develop, to grow,
to give the resources they needto move up in the organization.
And then it's making sure theirmorale is intact.
It's making sure they feel goodand they feel recognized about
what they do.
I think our people's a big partof that.
Second thing is, I would sayit's about our customers.
(34:32):
You know, I want to make surethat they have a great
experience.
I want them to feel like theyget for what they pay for, that
they get a value out of that andthat it's market, competitive
(34:52):
and that they understand if itcosts more.
I want them to reallyunderstand the value of the
service, the value of theexperience.
You know, if they're lookingfor something that costs less, I
want that to be able to serveup for them as well.
Just whatever it is they'relooking for.
And then the third thing Iwould say is our carriers.
(35:14):
Whether it's a driver for us orit's an outsourced carrier, I
want them to have a greatexperience as well.
I want them to be a place wherethey're like my next load needs
to come from JB Hunt.
So how do we do that?
We treat them with dignity.
We treat them with respect andwe make sure that they're
compensated fairly for the workthey do.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
You know, I think you , rondo, you summarized that
perfectly during ourconversation.
I mean, that's exactly how youtalked about everything, yeah,
and so thank you for that, youknow.
I think the takeaway for ourviewers here is that if you're
working in a company, or youwant to build a company someday,
(35:58):
or you want to be part of acompany, what Nick has done
today he's really laid out thisis what you look for.
You look for a company thattakes care of people people
first and you look for a companythat knows their customers and
takes care of their customers,and their carriers are a big
part of that.
That's our thing he taught.
So, as you look at companiestoday, listen to the wisdom that
(36:19):
Nick has given us today aroundwhat's important to him.
But that's how he operates andyou talked about.
You know, here's your ownresponsibility and, quite
frankly, you said the same thingand that is how you lead.
So, nick, it's been such apleasure to chat with you this
morning.
I thank you.
(36:40):
It's been so much to me thatyou're here.
I really appreciate ourfriendship and I want you to
know you just done a great joband you really taught us a lot
and reminded us a lot what'simportant, so thank you for that
.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Eddie, thank you so much for having me here.
I've enjoyed, always enjoyedtalking with you.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Same here and now.
Okay, a couple of things before.
Much for having me here.
I enjoyed, always enjoy,talking with you.
Same here and now.
Okay, a couple of things beforewe get out of here.
And first of all, thank you somuch, our viewers and listeners,
it means so much to us and,again I mentioned, thank you for
that.
You're taking us beyond all ofour expectations, so keep that
up, because our expectationskeeps rising every day too.
So keep that up.
(37:21):
Uh, nick, you know what wedidn't talk about.
We maybe you know.
Maybe we get you to come back,because there's a lot.
I know you're on the board ofuh, of ozark, the ozark
foundation, and um, we both lovecycling, but it's way beyond
that.
Yeah, but I want to maybe comeback someday and give us an
update on what's going on JBHunt 360 Box and then maybe we
(37:45):
can get into some communitythings that I think is so
important for all of our leadersto.
Yes, the work is that you know,but let's you know what happens
outside of that, so maybe wecan get into that.
Love to do that.
Would you do that?
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay.
Well, thank you again forjoining us today.
I'm Andy Wilson.
Again, nick Gowan.
Thank you, it's been a pleasureand I'll see you on the road,
on the gravel.
Okay, all right, everyone, havea wonderful day, thank you.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in
Biddenville.
I'm Andy Wilson and I'm thehost today and thank you so much
.
You know I'll say during thepodcast how much you have done
and we're so grateful becausenow, because of you, we're now
viewed in over 90 countries andthat is phenomenal.
So, thank you, keep sharing,keep sending me messages.
(00:29):
I want to hear from you, let meknow how we're doing and any
suggestions you have.
I have got such a phenomenalguest today, nick.
Welcome, andy.
Thank you for having me here.
It's an honor to be here.
It is so good.
Not only Nick and I have thisopportunity, but we're great
friends and we do something thatwe love and that's cycling
(00:51):
together.
I'm a Christian.
Well, here's the truth.
Everyone, I got to say it upfront.
I see Nick twice on a ride.
Okay, at the beginning and theend that's where I see Nick, and
in the middle I can't even seehim.
He's so far ahead of me.
But anyway, it's fun.
Nick, we have a great time,don't we?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
we do have a great time hitting the uh dirt work
roads of northwest arkansas, Iknow it is.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
We ride road and ride gravel, but we were talking the
other day.
We just love gravel now becausethe traffic and there's so much
calmer out there with thefarmers I think the the traffic,
the scenery.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I think I was telling you last week I rode through
the summer and I thought thedust would be a major issue, but
I really, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, I'm so glad you're here.
Nick Galvin is the vicepresident of 360 Box JB Hunt,
one of the most phenomenalcompanies there is in the world.
We're going to talk about thisgreat company.
We're also going to talk aboutNick and his role and
responsibilities, on what you doat JB Hunt and then some other
things, and I think you're goingto really enjoy this deep dive,
(01:54):
if you will, into supply chain.
You know supply chain iscritical.
We learned very at the pandemicwhat happens when that supply
chain is interrupted, and welearned that we're going to get
into all this kind of stuff andhow Nick and his team keeps the
product moving throughout theworld now, and not only on the
(02:16):
roadways in the US but abroadand on the trains and everything
else, and we'll get into someof that kind of stuff.
Nick, how's that sound?
Okay, good.
So, nick, vice president, 360box operations, talk to us a
little bit about that.
And then what I want to do iscome back and I just want to get
(02:36):
into how you got the jb huntand I know there's a story there
and then your journey over 30years at JB Hunt.
We want to talk about that, butlet's give our viewers and
listeners an opportunity.
What is 360 Box?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Sure, andy, thanks for asking 360 Box when you
think about JB Hunt, that is ourlegacy truck line.
That's what it started with.
It was Mr Hunt and it was atrailer and it was making
deliveries to our customers.
As he grew he added trailersand he added trailers to his
(03:15):
network.
That 360 box is the trailerportion and then we work to
provide the power portion,whether that's through our own
assets, through independentcontractors or outsourced
brokerage power.
But it's kind of a cool place tobe.
You know, if you go back andlook at what JB Hunt Truckload
(03:36):
became over the last 20 years orso, it's kind of taking a
backseat to intermodal.
We've seen a ton of intermodalgrowth.
I know you're familiar withthat and it's been a great
product for our customers, forlow cost, great service, et
cetera.
So the truck line took abackseat to that.
It's taken a little bit of abackseat to our dedicated, which
(03:56):
is private fleet replacement orprivate fleet augmentation, and
a little bit to our brokerageproduct.
And what was awesome in probably2017, 2018, we were all sitting
around kind of talking abouthow do we kind of revitalize,
how do we put some fire behindour traditional truck line and
the idea of 360 Box withLawrence.
(04:18):
So what 360 Box does is itlooks at power that operates
under our authority, but it alsolooks at additional capacity
out there and it gave us theopportunity to grow really fast.
So think about it this way Ifyou are dealing with a
traditional asset provider andyou have 10 loads that are
(04:41):
coming out of Kansas Citytomorrow and you have nine
trucks landing there, that's aproblem.
Only nine of the loads aregoing to get covered.
You're going to be at 90%on-time service at the best.
So our idea was let's not onlyuse these trucks that run under
our authority, let's open it upto basically outsource capacity.
(05:05):
Now that outsource capacity,they've got to meet our
standards, they've got to beinsured properly, they have to
be a safe carrier, they have tobe a respectful carrier.
And when we opened that up, wewere really able to accelerate
with growth and that kind ofpaired with the pandemic.
So when the pandemic started,wow, what a scary time.
(05:28):
Yeah, uh, starting up a newproduct, having the pandemic
going on, we had sent all of ourpeople to the house and we're
all working remotely.
In the first couple of monthsthere really wasn't a lot of
freight.
We had had a ton of carriersflock to us and really covet the
freight that we had.
But as we came out of that andwe saw stimulus and we saw the
(05:50):
demand and we saw theinventories get so far behind,
we had a great platform toreally grow.
360 box and it allowed us to.
It allowed us to lean into thatexternal outsource capacity,
allowed us to grow rapidly.
I think it was great because itlet a lot of our customers uh
(06:12):
see the value, uh, that value,of that model.
So, um, the long story short360 box it is the legacy truck
line in j?
Uh, but it's so much more nowthat we won't lean into that
external capacity.
Uh, 360 comes from our app 360,which is our carrier facing and
(06:32):
our customer facing app Uh, butit's uh, it's been hugely
successful product Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
That.
That is a great overview.
Uh, we have to go back and talkabout your founders a bit,
because the story is sophenomenal.
You know, in Northwest Arkansaswe're located, we have Walmart
stores, we have JB Hunt and wehave Tyson Foods and our
University of Arkansas, whichwe're so proud of.
But you know, it's amazing whatwe have here in our area, isn't
(07:05):
it?
And now, who is your customeron 360 Box?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Basically, our customer is anybody that
honestly wants to move a product.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, so you're that broad then.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So we're that broad.
Okay, what I would say?
That's limited to truckloadcapacity.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
We will do multi-stop .
Oh, you will.
So if you're asking for LTL, Isee where you're going here.
Yeah, if you're asking for LTLinside 360 box, I don't have an
answer for that.
Inside JB Hunt as a whole, wewould have an answer for that.
So my customer, what I'm reallylooking for, is somebody that
(07:47):
values the access to capacity,somebody that values a drop and
hook product that can be on thefront end of the load or the
back end of the load, or both.
Typically, when we're lookingat customers that want a drop
and hook product, they're tryingto plan their staffing around
(08:08):
unloading boxes and whatnot.
So that's kind of thedemographic of what we're
looking for.
Okay, got it, but full truckloaddrop and hook Good.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So when you get up in the morning and go to work,
maybe.
So what's what's your focus?
What do you work on?
What are your roles, yourresponsibilities?
How do you keep the freightmoving?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
yeah, I think, uh, there's there's a lot uh to that
.
I I think the number one thingis it really starts with my
people.
There's one I've got to holdthem accountable, but two I've
got to keep them happy.
So always kind of looking atthat and evaluating how are we
(08:57):
doing, how's our morale?
Things that I firmly believe inis, if you take care of your
people, your people will takecare of your carriers.
They'll take care of yourcustomers.
Your people will take care ofyour carriers, they'll take care
of your customers and they'lltake care of your stockholders.
So the mindset's always there inthe morning.
We want to make sure thateverybody gets started,
everybody has a great day, thateverybody understands what our
(09:18):
expectations are, what our goalsare.
There's a lot that I'm lookingat.
One I'm looking at our serviceto our customers the previous
day, how we're setting up forservice for our customers in the
day that we're in.
And then, you know, there's alot of times that we're looking
farther down the road from justmore of a strategic perspective.
(09:41):
But just in the day-to-dayoperations strategic perspective
, but just in the day-to-dayoperations.
It's really that people, it'sthe service side of it and it's
understanding, honestly, thebusiness part of the model.
Are we able to take care of ourcustomers?
Are we able to make a properreturn doing that?
Are we able to take care of ourcarriers and our people?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
able to take care of our carriers and our uh people
act this, this is 360 box the.
The truck drivers that thatthat that pull the trailers.
Are they independent or arethey within jb?
How does that?
How does your drivers work?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
so, uh, our mix of that is it.
It can vary why?
Okay, widely okay.
So you go back to the time ofthe pandemic.
Capacity was in such greatdemand.
We didn't have enough drivers,not at all, to do that.
So that ability to outsourcewas great and that really ran up
(10:37):
that outsource capacity toprobably north of 50% of our
capacity of 50% of our capacityRight now.
You know we've got we've got thevast majority of the capacity
operates under our authority,and then you've got a smaller
portion and I've got twoseparate groups that used
(10:58):
outsourced capacity.
One is just traditionalbrokerage and that's kind of
more just, that's kind of acatch-all.
It can be very consistent,though, when I say catch-all,
but it can catch that one-offload.
And then I have a group thatI'm also responsible for, called
PCS, power Capacity Solutions,and that's where we work with
(11:21):
outsourced carriers that don'toperate under our authority.
But we seek more long-termrelationships.
We want to bring them in, wewant to run them, we want to
dispatch them.
We want to make sure that theyalways have their case load so
it can ebb and flow If capacitydemands and we need to go to a
(11:43):
50-50 model that we can do that.
We typically don't live thereunless it's a high demand and a
high capacity situation.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It sounds like Nick, you're very focused on the
customer.
We are, and that's wonderful.
Your service there and I thinkthat's the thing that our
audience and viewers andlisteners can take away the
focus that 360 box JB Hunt hason that customer and you're
watching that, evaluating that,communicating with that in order
(12:14):
to get that freight from A to B, which is critical.
Okay, now inside of JB Hunt and, as I mentioned, we're going to
talk about JB Hunt more broadlyin a moment but inside of JB
Hunt, I know that you all do alot of Walmart business or
Target business and otherretailer business and I know
(12:36):
that could be somewhat outsideof what you work on every day.
But how does that go outside of360 box sort of it open up, if
you will, the window, how largejb hunt does and some other
things that jb hunt works?
So you mentioned intermodemquickly earlier.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Maybe talk some about that yeah, so uh, honestly,
andy, in my world, thosecustomers, uh, the retail
customers, that's a big part ofwhat I do every day.
But you do see a variety ofcustomers just kind of smothered
throughout the organization andthose can be very specialty
(13:14):
customers or they can beretailers, or the consumer
product companies that aresupplying those retailers.
Intermodal just a little bitabout that Intermodal we are the
largest provider of 53-footcontainers and 53-foot capacity.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
If I'm sitting in a train crossing, I'm seeing a lot
of JB Hunt trucks on thosetrains.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
There's a significant amount of capacity, that's for
sure.
Um, you know, we uh it's been aincredible ride for us.
It was.
It was an idea that mr hunt uhhad back in the late 80s and uh
worked with, uh worked with thebnsf uh to to really a handshake
(14:05):
agreement to get the productkicked off.
I spent about six years inintermodal and it was crazy to
watch the amount of growth thatwe saw.
When I went there, thatorganization had about 23,000
containers and when I left ithad about 60,000 containers and
when I left it had about 60,000containers.
(14:26):
So just uh, it's been a rapidgrowth product for us.
What's great about it?
Once you can work the transitcause, you're going to have a
little longer transit, uh,especially in a longer length of
halls compared to a traditionaltruck, uh.
But once you can work thattransit into your supply chain
and understand the consistencyand the reliability around that,
(14:48):
it gives you the opportunity toreally have that consistency in
a product, that service thatyou need, and it gives you the
opportunity to do that really ata lower price.
So when you think about thevalue proposition around that,
it is a it's a phenomenalproduct.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Right, it really is.
I don't think I ever told youabout the time I got to go to
Texas and Burlington, northernSanta Fe, and got to look inside
and be inside their office andwatch some of the movement
throughout the country.
I won't ever forget howphenomenal it was to be inside
that space.
Were you up in the controlspace?
(15:27):
Yes, I was in the control towerand it was remarkable.
Yeah, and so we'll have to talkmore about that someday.
Okay, nick, I'm 30 years at JBHunt.
Yes, sir, you went to school atUniversity of Arkansas and you
got your master's at John BrownUniversity.
Is that correct?
Talk about your journey throughthe school and your journey to
(15:51):
JB Hunt and some of the things,because you have a fascinating
career Prior to getting there.
Well, I know about it, but, aswe visited, talk to us about
that journey, because I thinkthere's a lot of people that
will be leaning in to have apassion for a career in this
space.
So talk about that, yourjourney.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, it's it's.
It's quite a journey, but whatit's funny.
I was talking with my wife theother night and we were kind of
laughing.
We're talking about when do wewant to retire?
And one of the things I lookback when I go back and look at
my college career kind of feellike I took four years of
retirement at some point duringcollege.
(16:33):
So it took me about eight yearsto get through to undergraduate
.
I really didn't know what Iwanted to do to get through to
undergraduate.
I really didn't know what Iwanted to do.
I think law had kind of crossedmy mind and the degree I was
closest to was a degree inphilosophy.
It was a good segue into law,just from the basis of arguments
(16:58):
and logic et cetera.
So I was that guy that got thephilosophy degree and uh, got
out of college again after eightyears somewhere.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You're serious about eight years, right, I guess?
Okay, that's okay, I'm not.
I'm laughing with you.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I, I mean this, this is good story I'm like now, but
I wasn't around at the time anduh, yeah, I honestly came out of
college in the middle ofrecession and, uh, you know, um,
I wasn't that great of astudent and law school was
proven to be a little harder toget into than I anticipated.
(17:35):
Uh, so we're working on a planB for that.
Long story short.
You know, it was just it wasrunning up and down Highway 71
at the time dropping off resumesat Tyson, jb Hunt and Wal-Mart,
it seemed like for months andfinally I got a call back from
JB Hunt and I got hired by themand got actually, first job I
(18:04):
ever took with them was called afreight handling coordinator
and I was like, well, that's gota good sound to it.
I like that.
I can be a freight handlingcoordinator.
And I go in and like, tell meabout this job.
And what they said is, well,you're going to come in at
midnight.
I said, okay, you're going toget off at 830 in the morning
(18:29):
and you are basically going tohelp our truck drivers find
people to help them unloadtrucks.
And they did not pay a lot ofmoney I mean, they did pay more
than minimum wage but I was like, okay, I will, uh, I'll do that
, uh, and and I'm I needed a job.
Uh, you've kind of been workingaround restaurant industry and
(18:49):
whatnot.
It's like it's just a foot inthe door and, uh, I'm gonna from
there.
I'll try to figure out what Ican do to get into a management
training program, decide if I'mgoing to go back to school or
not.
So I started there, andy, andit was an interesting job.
You know, typically if a truckdriver is hiring, they're called
(19:10):
lumpers.
They're on low trucks, they'reprobably not in a good mood
because they're now their dayhas interrupted.
They've got to contact some.
They've got to call me.
I've got to go find a lumper,have to negotiate a price with
burke.
I've got to make sure thatlumper shows up.
So it's a, it's a, it's a.
(19:31):
It can be a pretty challengingprocess and, uh, you get a lot
of lively language with it, andso I got into that.
I started thinking, well, Idon't want to do this forever.
So you know what's my next move?
And I found a gentleman andstill around.
His name's eric carolla.
He runs our management trainingprogram and I went to see eric
(19:51):
said hey, eric, can I get inthis management training program
?
And he was like well, do youhave a transportation logistics
degree?
It's like no, sir.
He said do you have three yearsof transportation experience?
I said no, sir.
He said okay.
He said did you have athree-pointer above at college?
And I laughed and said no, sir,I did not.
(20:12):
He said well, when you get oneof those, come back and see me.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
We both know where well he's a great guy.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
He's a good, oh yeah yeah, so, uh, I'm pretty if.
If there's one thing I am, it'sI'm persistent.
So, yeah, you know, wait two orthree weeks and I send eric
another email, or uh, we had aninternal system we didn't have
email, but, um, but I would, Iwould send him messages, I would
try to catch him in the halland I would just kind of
(20:40):
literally wear him out andfinally one day he sends me a
message.
He was like I'm going to giveyou one shot at this.
He got an interview to go intodedicated contract services and
I went in.
I sat down to interview with agentleman at the time that was
the president of dedicatedcontract services, unbeknownst
(21:01):
to me.
He had an undergraduate degreein philosophy and, uh, he sat
down, he saw my resume.
The first question he asked mewas who my favorite philosopher
was.
And you know, I I didn't have afavorite philosopher.
I was just getting out ofcollege and I threw something
out and we had, we had a20-minute conversation, uh,
knowing that, but, andy,honestly, the career really took
(21:23):
off from there.
I was able to get intodedicated operations.
I did have a significant mathbackground in college and was
able to kind of segue that intoengineering roles, spent
multiple years in dedicatedcontract services in an
engineering capacity, intermodalfrom a operations and a pricing
(21:45):
capacity.
Eventually to our Blankridgegroup had the opportunity this
was kind of a wild story too,but had the opportunity to
really help us establish ourfield footprint and was a part
of opening 32 field offices forthat group which was cool and uh
and helping launch our 360 uhplatform and then now inside
(22:10):
this uh 360 bunks yes, sir,thanks for sharing that journey.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Um, if you win it, well, no, it's really good,
because not everyone immediatelyworks.
But if you were to look backand give some advice today
someone young that's listeningto you today and they are
similar like you, okay, whatwould you tell them?
(22:39):
What are a couple of things yousay.
These are things you have to do.
What would that be?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah.
So there's a handful of things.
The first thing that I do inany job is find out what's
important.
What are the goals, what arethe metrics that we're going to
be measured by?
I think that's number one,because if you don't understand
that, you're going to have ahard time satisfying the needs
(23:04):
of your leadership.
So understand the metrics.
The second thing that I'vealways done, and I still try to
do now, is, outside of work, tryto take time weekly, biweekly,
to reflect on what it is you'reworking on and are you putting
the effort in the right places?
(23:25):
Does it line up with yourmetrics, with your objectives?
Does it line up with yourvalues?
If it doesn't, how do younavigate around that?
And I think a lot of that.
Andy is trying to figure outhow to work smarter.
And if you take time to justkind of ponder, I've found that
(23:49):
I've always been able to improvea process, improve a step, be
able to accomplish something.
That's probably the second thingthat I do.
And then I've got a saying thatI firmly believe in and this
happens a lot in transportation.
It probably happens a lot inevery environment, but things go
(24:09):
wrong.
So I've got a saying that isbad news sells best early.
And anyway, what I want to dowith that is, if I'm going to
have a problem, if I'm going tomiss a delivery, if I'm going to
miss a pickup, I want mycustomer to know as soon as they
can know.
That way, they may be mad at mefor missing that delivery, but
(24:30):
it gives them the opportunity torecover it with someone else.
The option is to say, hey, nick,I can reset that till tomorrow
and we're going to be okay, butit gives everybody an
opportunity to succeed.
Maybe not the way we wanted tosucceed, but if you're selling
that bad news early, it isgiving you the opportunity to
(24:52):
succeed.
Internally it's the same way.
If I've made a mistake or ifI've got a problem coming down
the pike, I want my boss to know.
I don't want him to beblindsided by his leadership.
So that's something I firmlybelieve in and I would say those
are really kind of the threethings I would say that are
important.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
That's great advice.
Yeah, and you mentioned earlierthat you're persistent.
Yes, and I think that'scritical.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You know you got to keep at it and you know you got
to keep at it, yeah, and youknow that brings us to, you know
, your founders, uh, mr hunt, uh, mr jb hunt and, um, his and
john l hunt, his partner.
Um, you know, when I moved herea long time ago, northwest
arkansas, uh, actually, thechurch I attended I attended was
(25:41):
Mr Hunt was there.
He was a member, and Mrs Huntand I I was, you know, in my
early thirties, and I rememberthe first time I met him he was
a towering guy with a big, atall guy with a cowboy hat on
and boots, and, and I don'tthink I quite ever seen one like
that, a hat on and boots, andand I don't think I quite ever
(26:05):
seen one like that.
But what I began to admire andwatch Mr Hunt, you know, from
afar, and and and then, um, youknow, unfortunately, his passing
it and, uh, you know it wasdevastating to this area, but
it's amazing how everyone at JBHunt, along with Mrs Hunt, has
stepped up and continued thegrowth.
And then later in my career, Igot the opportunity to meet Mrs
(26:29):
Hunt and spend some time withher and what she's done for this
area has been amazing, oh yeah,and for the world.
But the country, country, butit's just what.
So, as we look at theleadership, the foundation, talk
(26:50):
about the principles of JB Hunt.
The culture Talk about thatyeah.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
So yeah, when we really kind of talk about the
principles, the things that letus get things done, we really
talk about people, we talk aboutcapacity and we talk about
technology and the people sideof it.
Andy, I think and you comingfrom really the people side in
(27:14):
Walmart, the people side issomething that I think is
critically important.
And I think, JB Hunt, you knowyou look at me at 30 years and,
honestly, if you look acrossthat company, there are so many
people that have been there 20,25, 30, 35 years.
It is a great place to stay.
(27:35):
I have my best friends who arethere.
I don't know and I've said thisbefore, I don't even know if I
should say it on a podcast, butI don't know that transportation
is that intriguing.
I mean, you're moving a loadfrom point A to point B.
The thing that's kept me thereis, honestly, it's been the
people.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
And you know actually the people.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So, yeah, and we talk about that is is really kind of
one of our four tenants.
Uh, we, when we talk about ourvalues, we um, I got a great
story on one of these valueshere in a minute, but, uh, we
talked about integrity.
Uh, you know how we want tocome across, how we want to
(28:18):
behave.
Uh, we talk about respect.
Uh, and not that we want to berespected, but we want to behave
.
We talk about respect and notthat we want to be respected,
but we want to.
We want to be respectful of ourcarriers, we want to be
respectful of our customers.
We talk a lot about innovation.
Innovation, you know, you lookat the company.
It started as a.
(28:39):
We started Holland Chicken,Haltz, right, and now five
divisions and a ton oftechnology.
It's, it's definitely reallyhad a lot of innovation.
We talk about safety and whenyou've got as many trucks on the
road, when you've got as manyloads on the road, it is
(28:59):
inherently important for us tobe a safe carrier.
You know, that's our wife,that's our kids, that's our
friends, that's our familythat's running down the highway
next to an 80,000 pound truck.
So, no matter whether it's ourtruck or the side that I work on
the brokerage side.
I want to make sure that thatcarrier is being safe.
(29:21):
And then the final thing thatyou'll hear us talk about a lot
is excellence.
We want to be excellent in whatwe do.
We want to be excellent notonly in the service that we give
to our customer.
We want to be excellent in ourbilling.
We want to make sure that webill right the first time.
We want to be excellent in ourcommunications.
(29:42):
You know that bad news sellsbest early, so when you talk
about it, those are a lot of thekind of values and principles
that you, that we, talk aboutand that we hear about and that
we define as kind of our values.
But I think the you know themost important thing of course
(30:03):
is the people side and I've seenthat early in England since I
started at JB Hunt the peoplewhen I started.
I think about the KirkThompsons of the world.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Great guy.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, former CEO, former chairman of the board,
Kirk, had been there.
it seemed like forever when Istarted, but I noticed that a
lot the Mike Taylors, the JeffFrancos of the world.
There were people that had beenthere a long time and we did a
great job taking care of ourpeople.
I talked about the pandemicearly on and I remember sending
(30:36):
people home and I remember onegentleman in particular.
He'd been with the company fortwo weeks and, uh, you know I
was telling him hey, we're goinghome.
I know you don't know how to dothis job, I know you're brand
new.
Uh, and I can't imagine the youknow the fear.
He's right, how am I going todo this remotely?
(30:56):
But we landed, leaned into him,gave him the training we need.
We did that for several people,but people's always been at the
forefront of what we do.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
You know, nick, as I think about your company and the
people that you have mentioned,and you know, walmart and JB
Hunt have a lot of similarities.
You know, founded by twoindividuals in our area and then
and then grew to be the size,but yet the focus, what you
(31:33):
talked about is critical people,and that is what it's all about
.
And taking care of your people,making sure that they're ready
and equipped, and you know it'sreally about servant leadership,
isn't it?
At the end of the day, it'sbeing a servant to your people
and that's what you're talkingabout.
The culture and you side yourorganizations by serving others.
(31:56):
You know, we see that.
You know, I see that visibly.
You have a wonderful presidentCEO now and she does an
excellent job of you know what Isee her on LinkedIn and or
wherever we're talking aboutthose truck drivers, talking
about and honoring those truckdrivers.
Same with all the employeeassociates inside the
(32:17):
organization.
Shelly continues to drive thatmessage associates inside the
organization.
Now shelly continues to drivethat message down inside the
organization.
It's great when you have acompany that loves their people
and cares and takes care of thepeople, and that's what jb hunt
is it is, and you know I can'tsay enough about that.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
The culture is great.
It is, Honestly, it's a funplace to work at.
And I love to have fun, I loveto make money and it's just a
great place to do it, nick.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Just a great place to do it, nick.
Okay, thank you for sharingabout Box 360 Box.
Thank you for sharing aboutsome of your roles and
responsibilities and yourcustomers, and then, of course,
always enjoy the culturediscussion we just had around
(33:17):
your company For our viewers andlisteners.
If you were going to summarizea few things, how would you
summarize what we talked abouttoday?
How would you prioritize andsummarize around what you do,
what your company is all about?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Well, I hope I understand the question.
So really just a summary of theconversation.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah, here's another way.
If you were to summarize ourconversation, here are three
things that are most important,that I do every day or our
company does every day.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah, I'll go back to things that at least I think
are important.
Okay, sure One.
I think it's our people.
We have to, we have to do anexcellent job of taking care of
them Right, that's given them,you know, it's taken care of
them during the pandemic, andnot only in people.
(34:11):
It's giving them theopportunity to develop, to grow,
to give the resources they needto move up in the organization.
And then it's making sure theirmorale is intact.
It's making sure they feel goodand they feel recognized about
what they do.
I think our people's a big partof that.
Second thing is, I would sayit's about our customers.
(34:32):
You know, I want to make surethat they have a great
experience.
I want them to feel like theyget for what they pay for, that
they get a value out of that andthat it's market, competitive
(34:52):
and that they understand if itcosts more.
I want them to reallyunderstand the value of the
service, the value of theexperience.
You know, if they're lookingfor something that costs less, I
want that to be able to serveup for them as well.
Just whatever it is they'relooking for.
And then the third thing Iwould say is our carriers.
(35:14):
Whether it's a driver for us orit's an outsourced carrier, I
want them to have a greatexperience as well.
I want them to be a place wherethey're like my next load needs
to come from JB Hunt.
So how do we do that?
We treat them with dignity.
We treat them with respect andwe make sure that they're
compensated fairly for the workthey do.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
You know, I think you , rondo, you summarized that
perfectly during ourconversation.
I mean, that's exactly how youtalked about everything, yeah,
and so thank you for that, youknow.
I think the takeaway for ourviewers here is that if you're
working in a company, or youwant to build a company someday,
(35:58):
or you want to be part of acompany, what Nick has done
today he's really laid out thisis what you look for.
You look for a company thattakes care of people people
first and you look for a companythat knows their customers and
takes care of their customers,and their carriers are a big
part of that.
That's our thing he taught.
So, as you look at companiestoday, listen to the wisdom that
(36:19):
Nick has given us today aroundwhat's important to him.
But that's how he operates andyou talked about.
You know, here's your ownresponsibility and, quite
frankly, you said the same thingand that is how you lead.
So, nick, it's been such apleasure to chat with you this
morning.
I thank you.
(36:40):
It's been so much to me thatyou're here.
I really appreciate ourfriendship and I want you to
know you just done a great joband you really taught us a lot
and reminded us a lot what'simportant, so thank you for that
.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Eddie, thank you so much for having me here.
I've enjoyed, always enjoyedtalking with you.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Same here and now.
Okay, a couple of things before.
Much for having me here.
I enjoyed, always enjoy,talking with you.
Same here and now.
Okay, a couple of things beforewe get out of here.
And first of all, thank you somuch, our viewers and listeners,
it means so much to us and,again I mentioned, thank you for
that.
You're taking us beyond all ofour expectations, so keep that
up, because our expectationskeeps rising every day too.
So keep that up.
(37:21):
Uh, nick, you know what wedidn't talk about.
We maybe you know.
Maybe we get you to come back,because there's a lot.
I know you're on the board ofuh, of ozark, the ozark
foundation, and um, we both lovecycling, but it's way beyond
that.
Yeah, but I want to maybe comeback someday and give us an
update on what's going on JBHunt 360 Box and then maybe we
(37:45):
can get into some communitythings that I think is so
important for all of our leadersto.
Yes, the work is that you know,but let's you know what happens
outside of that, so maybe wecan get into that.
Love to do that.
Would you do that?
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay.
Well, thank you again forjoining us today.
I'm Andy Wilson.
Again, nick Gowan.
Thank you, it's been a pleasureand I'll see you on the road,
on the gravel.
Okay, all right, everyone, havea wonderful day, thank you.
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