What CEOs Are Saying: Keep On Truckin'

Three earnings calls from J.B. Hunt, ManpowerGroup, and Cintas

In this edition

• US truck drivers are aging
• AI accelerates time-to-hire
• It takes humans to get full AI benefit
• What uniform sales say about the economy

Quote of the week

“Technology can get you to the pilot, but it’s humans that have to get you to the realization of the benefit.” —Becky Frankiewicz, President and Chief Strategy Officer, Manpower Group

The US trucking industry is short roughly 82,000 drivers this year, its first shortage in four years, according to the American Trucking Associations. The average driver is now around 57 years old, and retirements are outpacing new entrants. Spot rates for hauling freight have climbed to two-year highs, and a federal roadside inspection blitz in May pulled enough trucks off the road to tighten the market further. Analysts are clear that the squeeze is coming from a shrinking supply of trucks and drivers, not a surge in shipping demand.

Much of J.B. Hunt’s earnings call this week was about how the company, one of the country’s largest truc…