Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights C.H. Robinson, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Saia and ArcBest

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – January 19, 2026 – Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses C.H. Robinson Worldwide CHRW, J.B. Hunt Transport Services JBHT, Saia SAIA and ArcBest Corp. ARCB.

Industry: Transportation - Trucking

Link: https://www.zacks.com/commentary/2818625/3-truck-stocks-positioned-to-navigate-industry-challenges

The Zacks Transportation-Truck industry continues to face supply-chain disruptions, a weak freight scenario and a difficult macroeconomic backdrop marked by geopolitical tensions, still-high inflation levels and a shortage of truck drivers. The freight downturn is hurting players in other corners of the broader Zacks Transportation sector as well. For example, C.H. Robinson Worldwide is also hurt by this prolonged freight recession.

Despite these headwinds and the resulting demand uncertainty, the truck industry has demonstrated resilience, particularly among companies that focus on growth strategies and operational efficiency. Notable players expected to withstand these challenges include J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Saia and ArcBest Corp.

Industry Description

The Zacks Transportation - Truck industry houses truck operators transporting freight to diverse customers, mainly across North America. These companies provide full-truckload or less-than-truckload (“LTL”) services over the short, medium or long haul. The range of trucking services these companies provide includes dry-van, dedicated, refrigerated, flatbed and expedited. Some companies have an extensive fleet of company-owned tractors and trucks, and independent contractor trucks.

Besides trucking, most entities offer logistics and intermodal services as well as value-added services like container drayage, truckload brokerage, supply-chain consulting and warehousing. A few also offer asset-light services to other third-party logistics companies in the transportation sector.

3 Trends Shaping the Future of the Trucking Industry

Prolonged Freight Downturn Remains Worrisome: Although economic activities picked up from the pandemic gloom, lingering supply-chain disruptions continue to dent stocks in the industry. Below-par freight rates are also hurting the industry’s prospects. Highlighting weak freight demand, the Cass Freight Shipments Index declined 7.6% year over year in November 2025. This measure has deteriorated year over year each of the past nine months, which confirms the overall declining trend.

Cost Cuts to Boost Margins: The industry is facing input cost inflation, transport and logistics costs, and the impact of tariffs. Industry players are constantly implementing cost-reduction actions, which are likely to help sustain margins in this scenario. The companies are focused on streamlining their operations and realigning around high-growth key markets or customer segments to enhance performance.

Prolonged Truck-Driver Shortage: The persistent driver crisis in the trucking industry is worsening supply-chain challenges across the United States. Driver scarcity issues limit trucking capacity, making it difficult for trucking companies to meet increased freight demand. American Trucking Associations’ chief economist, Bob Costello, expects the trucking industry to be short of more than 160,000 drivers by 2030.

Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Dull Prospects

The Zacks Transportation - Truck industry is a 12-stock group. The industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #234, which places it in the bottom 2% of 243 Zacks industries.

The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, the average of the Zacks Rank of all member stocks, indicates murky near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

The industry’s position in the bottom 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is a result of a negative earnings outlook for the constituent companies in aggregate. Looking at the aggregate earnings estimate revisions, it appears that analysts are gradually losing confidence in this group’s earnings growth potential. The industry's earnings estimate for 2026 has decreased 30.9% on a year-over-year basis.

Before we present a few stocks from the industry that you may want to hold on to, let’s take a look at the industry’s recent stock market performance and the valuation picture.

Truck Industry Underperforms the SP 500 and the Sector

The Zacks Transportation-Truck industry has lagged the Zacks S&P 500 composite as well as the Transportation sector over the past year.

The industry has declined 3.7% over this period compared with the S&P 500's appreciation of 18.1% and the broader sector’s uptick of 1.4%.

Truck Industry's Current Valuation

Based on the trailing 12-month EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), a commonly used multiple for valuing trucking stocks, the industry is currently trading at 14.37X compared with the S&P 500’s 18.99X. The figure is above the sector’s EV/EBITDA of 10.83X.

Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 16.3X and as low as 7.83X, with the median being 12.31X.

3 Transport Truck Stocks to Keep an Eye On

J.B. Hunt provides a broad range of transportation services to a diverse group of customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. JBHT is benefiting from efforts to reward its shareholders through dividend payments and share repurchases.

Shares of JBHT have increased 11% in a year. JBHT currently carries a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold). The company’s earnings have surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters (missing the mark on the other two occasions). The average beat is 3.4%.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Saia provides regional and interregional LTL services. The firm offers full value coverage, logistics services, distribution and consolidation, trade show, customs clearance, retail delivery, cross-border shipping to Mexico and Canada, and offshore shipping to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

SAIA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3. The company’s earnings have surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters (missing the mark on the other occasion).

ArcBest provides freight transportation services and solutions. The company is based in Fort Smith, AR. ArcBest is being well-served by its efforts to control costs, improve productivity and enhance service quality.

The company expects its 2026 earnings per share to increase 37.9% on a year-over-year basis. Its earnings have missed the consensus mark in two of the last four quarters and beat the mark in the remaining two. The average beat is 5.8%. ArcBest currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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