Johnnie Bryan Hunt, a former truck driver who founded one of the nation’s largest trucking companies, died Thursday at 79 at an Arkansas hospital following a fall. He was 79.

A sharecropper’s son, Hunt began J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. in 1969 with five tractors and seven trailers. By 2004, when Hunt stepped down as the company’s senior chairman, the company was a billion-dollar business with more than 16,000 employees and a fleet of some 11,000 trucks.

After he retired, Hunt pursued interests as a private investor in real estate, construction, and development. He and his wife, Johnelle, remained the largest shareholder of J.B. Hunt stock.

Hunt quit school at 12 and worked at his family’s sawmill. He sold sawdust to chicken farmers, joined the Army, and later hauled chickens.

In the late 1950s, Hunt designed a system to grind and package rice hulls for chicken coop litter. In its first year, the company lost $19,000. He began packing the hulls in paper rather than expensive burlap and made a profit the second year.

As a trucker, he courted Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. which became Hunt’s largest customer. All of Hunt’s workers were nonunion and still are. He saved on fuel costs by giving bonuses to drivers who drove 55 mph.

In 1980, the trucking industry was deregulated, and J.B. Hunt Transport accelerated its growth.

Hunt introduced computers to drivers in the 1990s. Drivers use on-board computers to communicate with fleet managers, ending the search for telephones to find out about the next load.

In 1995, Hunt retired as chairman of J.B. Hunt and became senior chairman, a position he held until 2004.