J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. is beefing up its intermodal fleet with new containers that it expects to speed up trade from China to customers in the U.S.
The Lowell-based trucking and intermodal transportation company said Thursday that two new vessels, named after company founders Johnnie Brian and Johnelle Hunt, will increase capacity to move the containers. The container ships are part of a long-term, multivessel service agreement between J.B. Hunt and Swire Shipping Pte. Ltd.
The new containers will help the company by "greatly reducing the time it takes for customers' freight originating overseas to be out for delivery in the U.S.," said Darren Fields, president of intermodal at J.B. Hunt.
"This is yet another example of our people listening to the needs of customers and developing a creative solution to efficiently deliver on their capacity needs," said John Roberts, J.B. Hunt's president and chief executive officer.
The company has committed to adding as many as 150,000 containers to its intermodal fleet in the next three to five years. Intermodal transportation companies use trucking, shipping and rail travel to move goods.