IBM and J.B. Hunt Develop Java Suite to Better Manage Trucking Fleet

Internet Carrier Suite Saves Small to Medium Truckload Carriers Thousands

AUSTIN (March 31, 1998) – To J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., a $1.7-billion transportation and logistics company, managing more than two million truckload shipments a year has never been easier or more cost effective thanks to Java.** IBM,* working with J.B. Hunt Logistics, developed the Java-based Internet Carrier Suite to help improve communications, reduce freight routing turnaround time and lower network costs of J.B. Hunt’s third-party truckload carrier companies, which should improve overall customer satisfaction for the company.
The Internet Carrier Suite includes four Java-based applications that allow J.B. Hunt Logistics’ third-party carrier companies to track carrier availability, schedule truck loads, track shipment status and enter freight invoices over the Internet. J.B. Hunt Logistics plans to deploy the suite of Java-based applications to approximately 300 of the small-to medium-sized truckload carrier companies they contract to meet the shipment demands of their customers.
The Java-based suite is targeted for J.B. Hunt Logistics’ small to medium sized contracted carrier companies and is expected to save these companies thousands per year in network costs and proprietary software. The scheduling, shipment status and freight invoicing applications should improve communications between J.B. Hunt Logistics and their carriers as well as decrease shipment delays because the transactions can occur in real time over the Internet. The applications also eliminate the need for traditional facsimiles or for an Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI, investment by the carriers.
Star Tests Internet Carrier Suite
At Star Transportation, Inc., a $60-million transportation company based in Nashville, working with J.B. Hunt Logistics will be fast, convenient and cost effective. Star is pilot-testing the shipment status application, one of four applications in the suite. The shipment status application helps Star Transportation report the progress of loads to J.B. Hunt Logistics once they have been tendered. By letting them know if and when the load was delivered, this application will help Star better manage their own fleet of 450 trucks around the country.
“Today, about 45% of our carriers communicate electronically through EDI, automated voice response, or proprietary non-Internet software,” said Kay Palmer, vice president, Software Development, J.B. Hunt. “The Java-based Internet Carrier Suite will allow us to increase automated communications with our carriers to about 86%. This equates to automating almost a million additional calls a year — a tremendous savings for both J.B. Hunt and our carriers.”
IBM Software at J.B. Hunt
The Internet Carrier Suite was developed with IBM’s Visual Age* for Java due to its class-based rapid application development environment which integrates a visual programming tool, incremental compiling and complete support for Java Beans. In addition, IBM’s DB2* is used to store all information for communication between J.B. Hunt and their third-party carriers.
IBM software brings scalability, security and reliability to J.B. Hunt’s network, providing an end-to-end solution from the operating systems, to the development environment, to data storage, to secure transactions over the Internet. In addition to Visual Age for Java and DB2, IBM’s transaction processing and networking software, including CICS*, Communications Server* for OS/390, and Personal Communications*, are also used at J.B. Hunt to tie this award winning network together.

Source: IBM

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