J.B. Hunt grew revenue 20% to $3.68 billion in the third quarter of 2026, but higher costs left operating income up only 2%, at $247.1 million, the company reported. Driver costs, insurance claims and fuel together cut operating income by more than $50 million compared with the second quarter, CFO Brad Delco told analysts on the earnings call, with group medical claims alone accounting for more than $16 million. The company had warned about these costs before the quarter ended.

The carrier now plans to win that money back through price, starting with intermodal, its biggest business. Darren Field, who runs intermodal, said on the call that the company is “asking for larger rate increases certainly than what we’ve shown so far,” after it won only low-single-digit increases in this year’s bids. “The largest opportunity ahead of us is ensuring our pricing reflects the value we create,” CEO Shelley Simpson said.

Truck prices have climbed far faster than intermodal prices this year, which leaves J.B. Hunt room to raise intermodal rates a long way before rail stops being the cheaper choice. That means shippers moving freight by rail are likely to pay more as their contracts reprice in 2027.

The producer price index for long-distance truckload, which tracks what carriers charge for full truckloads, rose 17.9% from a year earlier in September and is now above its 2022 peak. J.B. Hunt’s intermodal revenue per load, by contrast, rose just 2% once fuel surcharges are taken out, because most intermodal freight moves on annual contracts that haven’t reset yet.

Field said the 2027 bid season is about “repairing our margins,” and Delco said some of the higher costs will stay “with us in Q4 as well as into next year.”

Field said intermodal needs to save shippers at least 15% compared with truck to keep winning lanes, since rail is slower. Price it closer to truck than that, he said, and “you’re going to slow conversion down.”

Today the savings are much larger. Spencer Frazier, J.B. Hunt’s head of sales and marketing, said the gap is “more than double” the historical norm, at about 31% today. For example, a load that costs $1,000 by truck would cost about $690 by intermodal, by our math, so J.B. Hunt could raise that rate to about $850, a 23% increase, before the savings fell to 15%.

Customers are also pushing back less on price. Field said there was “a lot of pushback from customers on price increases” early in the year, but “those conversations have become more realistic.”

Rail service has slipped as intermodal volume surged, and Field said it “has taken a small step back.” Delco added that more train derailments are pushing up cargo claims.

Higher driver pay hit J.B. Hunt’s dedicated business hardest, where the company runs trucks and drivers for a single shipper. Operating income there fell 22% to $81.7 million even as revenue rose 11% to $960 million. Brad Hicks, who runs the unit, said the starting driver wage it set for some new accounts turned out to be “inadequate in certain geographies” and has been raised, and new accounts usually take about six months to reach target profit.

Shippers are signing up anyway. Hicks said dedicated pricing activity in September was up almost 50% from a year earlier, because “third-party capacity has proven less reliable.” Existing contracts carry indexed price escalators, clauses that pass some cost increases through automatically, so shippers already on dedicated fleets will see some of those costs too.

Here’s how shippers are handling higher truck costs:

J.B. Hunt reprices its intermodal contracts on a set calendar, Field said: