Overroute, an artificial intelligence software company incubated through JB Hunt's UpLabs program, has deployed its platform across hundreds of JB Hunt users spanning the carrier's intermodal, over-the-road, and dedicated business units, Chief Executive Officer Alex Reed said in an interview with FreightWaves.

The tool surfaces internal data and assists customer-facing representatives in responding to requests, building reports, and managing service exceptions — work that Reed described as the first phase of a broader push into asset utilization.

The deployment is significant for carriers and shippers alike because it targets what is widely considered the most challenging layer of trucking technology: asset-side operations. JB Hunt, publicly traded on NASDAQ as JBHT and consistently ranked among the largest trucking companies in North America by revenue, operates one of the industry's most complex mixed fleets — spanning intermodal containers, dedicated contract services, and over-the-road dry van. Rather than building tools for brokers — typically the earliest adopters of freight technology — Overroute is working directly with one of the largest asset-based carriers in North America, giving the startup an unusually detailed view of enterprise workflows from the outset.

Reed said the current rollout is deliberately focused on lower-risk automation. The company is piloting appointment-setting capabilities and has already tested what he called "operationally focused data gap calling." The next phase, expected over the coming months, will focus on helping frontline transportation managers and operations managers make better decisions about driver and asset positioning across JB Hunt's network.

"I think what I've seen coming in is if you look at how these decisions are getting made across the network, the most impactful place you can be is really at the frontline, the transportation managers, the ops managers, where they move the assets, they move the drivers," said Reed.

Reed framed Overroute's approach to automation in three tiers: tasks that can be fully automated, tasks that require human approval, and tasks that will always require a human in the loop. Track-and-trace monitoring and customer response fall into the first category today. Asset routing and driver assignment decisions are firmly in the third, at least for now.

"Those decisions then compound across the network," Reed said, arguing that improving frontline decision quality produces outsized downstream effects on backhaul positioning and network balance. For large asset-based carriers, even incremental gains in utilization can translate into meaningful cost savings, as empty miles and unproductive asset time remain persistent drags on operating margins industrywide.

On change management — a persistent obstacle for enterprise AI deployments — Reed said Overroute focuses on demonstrating value at the individual user level before seeking executive buy-in. He likened frontline freight work to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, noting that operators spend disproportionate time on low-level, repetitive tasks.

"The easiest way we found is to actually show people how we can make their lives better. And then once they actually see that and they have that aha moment, then they're able to do that," Reed said. He added that once workers buy in, they often surface new use cases the vendor had not anticipated.

Asked about success rates for AI implementations — a sector where most projects are widely reported to underdeliver — Reed set a demanding internal standard. He said vendors entering enterprise accounts must win early and win consistently, taking on more complex and riskier use cases only after establishing a track record. The bar reflects broader skepticism in the logistics sector, where several high-profile freight technology ventures have struggled to translate venture-backed AI promises into sustained profitability.

"You gotta deliver because we're all looking at this for ROI and we all know that we're not gonna be around if we can't deliver ROI with AI," he said. He acknowledged that once trust is established, carriers and vendors can jointly take on higher-risk projects where occasional failures are mutually accepted.

Overroute is also in early conversations with additional carriers beyond JB Hunt. Reed said the lessons learned inside JB Hunt's network — particularly around tool adoption at the user level rather than the executive level — are shaping how the company approaches those new relationships.

Source: FreightWaves