ArcBest Corporation (‘ArcBest’), together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated logistics company that leverages technology and a full suite of solutions to meet the company’s customers’ supply chain needs.
With the ability to optimize, connect, and deliver across various modes of transportation, the company serves as a single logistics resource with global reach. This integrated approach, combined with its technology, expertise, scale, and resilient people who are driven to always f...
ArcBest Corporation (‘ArcBest’), together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated logistics company that leverages technology and a full suite of solutions to meet the company’s customers’ supply chain needs.
With the ability to optimize, connect, and deliver across various modes of transportation, the company serves as a single logistics resource with global reach. This integrated approach, combined with its technology, expertise, scale, and resilient people who are driven to always find a way to get the job done, ensures its customers have the right solutions and capacity to meet their constantly evolving needs.
United as ArcBest, the company is a growth-oriented, digitally enabled integrated logistics company that delivers reliable, innovative solutions through a variety of ground, air, and ocean transportation solutions, including the company’s less-than-truckload (‘LTL’) carrier – ABF Freight, the company’s truckload brokerage provider – MoLo, and the company’s ground expedite fleet – Panther Premium Logistics (‘Panther’). Through the company’s managed transportation solutions, it partners with customers to create and execute logistics strategies that increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, and give customers better insights into their supply chains. The company also offers household goods moving through U-Pack. The company’s technology and innovations team provides custom-built solutions, leading-edge technology, and advanced analytics that help support its customers and optimize supply chains.
The company’s operations are conducted through its two reportable operating segments, which are described further in the Asset-Based Segment and Asset-Light Segment sections below:
Asset-Based, which consists of ABF Freight System, Inc. and certain other subsidiaries (‘ABF Freight’), and
Asset-Light, which includes MoLo Solutions, LLC (‘MoLo’), Panther, and certain other subsidiaries.
With a relentless focus on customer needs and unique access to assured transportation capacity, which includes more than 40,000 owned and operated assets, the company creates solutions for even the most complex and demanding supply chains.
For the year ended December 31, 2024, the ten largest customers, on a combined basis, accounted for approximately 13% of the company’s consolidated revenues.
Strategy
The company’s customer-led strategy is to produce long-term value by delivering a premium experience and growing informed, trusted, and innovative relationships. This value is produced by focusing on three key components — accelerate growth, increase efficiency, and drive innovation.
The company works to build long-term value for its customers, employees, and shareholders by expanding its revenue opportunities and building a resilient business.
Segments
Asset-Based Segment
The company’s Asset-Based segment provides LTL services through the motor carrier operations, ABF Freight.
ABF Freight has been in continuous service since 1923 and is one of North America’s largest LTL motor carriers, providing direct service to more than 98% of the U.S. cities with a population of 30,000 or more. ABF Freight offers interstate and intrastate services to approximately 51,000 communities in all 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico through 241 service centers. ABF Freight also provides motor carrier freight transportation services to customers in Mexico through arrangements with trucking companies in that country.
The company’s Asset-Based segment offers transportation of general commodities through standard, time-critical, and guaranteed LTL services. General commodities include all freight except hazardous waste, dangerous explosives, commodities of exceptionally high value, commodities in bulk, and those requiring special equipment. Shipments of general commodities differ from shipments of bulk raw materials, commonly transported by railroad, truckload tank car, pipeline, and water carrier. General commodities transported by its Asset-Based operations include, among other things, food, textiles, apparel, furniture, appliances, chemicals, non-bulk petroleum products, rubber, plastics, metal and metal products, wood, glass, automotive parts, machinery, and miscellaneous manufactured products.
Asset-Light Segment
The company’s Asset-Light segment is a key component of its strategy to offer customers a single source of integrated logistics solutions, designed to satisfy the complex supply chain needs and unique shipping requirements that its customers encounter. By leveraging technology and third-party service providers, its Asset-Light team provides various logistics services without significant investment in revenue equipment or real estate.
The company’s Asset-Light segment originated with the formation of ABF Logistics in July 2013, when it aligned the sales and operations functions of its organically developed logistics businesses. The Asset-Light segment includes the ground expedite services of Panther, the company’s truckload operations, including the truckload brokerage services of MoLo, household goods moving services under the U-Pack brand, for which the majority of the moves are provided with its Asset-Based operations, and its managed transportation solutions. Under the company’s enhanced market approach to offer customers a single source of integrated logistics solutions, the service offerings of the Asset-Light segment have become more integrated, particularly through its growing managed transportation solutions. The decision was made to reduce its Asset-Light segment’s large trailer pools operations during the fourth quarter of 2024. Management’s operating decisions are focused on the Asset-Light segment’s combined operations rather than individual service offerings within the segment’s operations.
Truckload
The company’s truckload service provides third-party transportation brokerage services by sourcing various capacity solutions, including dry van over-the-road, temperature-controlled and refrigerated, flatbed, intermodal or container shipping, and specialized equipment, coupled with strong technology and carrier- and customer-based Web tools. Through the company’s truckload service, it offers a growing network of more than 100,000 approved contract carriers, with service to all 50 states, Canada, and Mexico. Additional value is created for customers through seamless access to the ABF Freight network.
Managed Transportation
Through the company’s managed transportation solutions, it partners with customers to increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, and give better insight into supply chains by providing customized solutions utilizing technology. Additional value is created for customers through seamless access to its ABF Freight network, its Panther fleet, and its MoLo truckload brokerage operations, offering strategic supply chain solutions with unique access to assured capacity.
Expedite
Leveraging the company’s best-in-class Panther fleet, it offers expedite freight transportation services to commercial and government customers. The company also offers premium logistics services that involve the rapid deployment of highly specialized equipment to meet precise linehaul requirements, such as temperature control, hazardous materials, geofencing (routing a shipment across a mandatory, defined route with satellite monitoring and automated alerts concerning any deviation from the route), specialized government cargo, security services, and life sciences.
The company relies on third-party carriers for most of the network capacity for its expedite operations, including owner-operators, ground linehaul providers, cartage agents, and other transportation asset providers. It chooses carriers based on how well they can meet its customers’ needs in terms of price, technology capabilities, geographic coverage, and service quality. Third-party-owned vehicles are driven by independent contract drivers and drivers engaged directly by independent owners of multiple pieces of equipment, commonly referred to as fleet owners. The company’s expedite operations own a fleet of trailers, the communication devices used by its owner-operators, and certain highly specialized equipment, primarily temperature-controlled and temperature-validated trailers to meet the service requirements of certain customers.
International
The company’s international shipping and logistics services provide global ocean and air shipping solutions by partnering with ocean shipping lines and air freight carriers worldwide, as well as cross-border shipping and ground transportation to and from ports. As a non-vessel operating common carrier, it provides less-than-container load and full container load service, offering ocean transport to approximately 90% of the total ocean international market to and from the United States. The company also offers warehousing and distribution services to and from major global ports to streamline its customers’ ocean shipping processes.
Moving
The company’s moving services offer flexibility and convenience for how people move through targeted service offerings for the ‘do-it-yourself’ consumer. The company offers these targeted services at competitive prices that reflect the additional value customers find in its convenient, reliable moving service offerings.
Other Logistics Services
The company also provides other services to meet its customers’ logistics needs, such as final mile, time-critical, product launch, warehousing and distribution, retail logistics, supply chain optimization, brokered LTL, and trade show shipping services. The company’s Retail+ compliance solution is designed to help vendors better meet large retailers’ stringent shipping and delivery requirements by combining innovative software solutions with enhanced operations processes.
Competition
The segment competes most directly with nonunion and union LTL carriers, including FedEx Freight Corporation, the LTL reporting segment of FedEx Corporation; the LTL segment of Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc.; Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc.; Saia, Inc.; the U.S. LTL operating segment of TFI International Inc.; and the North American LTL segment of XPO, Inc.
The company’s Asset-Light segment competes most directly with logistics companies, including the North American Surface Transportation segment of C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc.; Covenant Logistics Group, Inc.; Hub Group, Inc.; the Integrated Capacity Solutions segment of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.; the Logistics segment of Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc.; Landstar System, Inc.; the truck brokerage and complementary service offerings of RXO, Inc.; and the Freight segment of Uber Technologies, Inc.
Seasonality
The company’s reportable operating segments are impacted by seasonal fluctuations that affect tonnage, shipment levels, and demand for its services. The company’s yield initiatives, along with increased technology-driven intelligence and visibility with respect to demand, have allowed for shipment optimization in non-peak times, reducing its susceptibility to seasonal fluctuations in recent years, including during the year ended December 31, 2024.
Technology
During 2024, the company made additional technology investments to improve both customer experience and carrier capacity experience while continuing to optimize costs. Some examples of these investments include:
The company began beta testing ArcBest View, which was released to the public in February 2025.
The company continues to invest in ArcBest Virtual Agent (AVA), which uses automation to quickly schedule shipment pickups, supply tracking information, and address other questions through email, phone, and web chat.
In February 2024, the company announced the next step in its Vaux suite – Vaux Smart Autonomy, which combines autonomous mobile robot forklifts and reach trucks, intelligent software, and remote teleoperation capability to autonomously handle materials movement within warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing facilities, while being monitored by humans.
In February 2025, the company announced another addition to its Vaux suite – Vaux Vision, which is a 3D perception technology designed to streamline material handling by providing precise, real-time freight measurements directly on a forklift.
Typically, freight transportation customers communicate their freight needs on a shipment-by-shipment basis, by using telephone, email, web, mobile applications, electronic data interchange (‘EDI’), or API.
Environmental and Other Government Regulations
Maintenance of the company’s tanks is regulated by the EPA and, in most cases, by state agencies.
Certain of the company’s Asset-Based service center facilities operate with no exposure certifications or stormwater permits under the federal Clean Water Act (the ‘CWA’), as amended.
The company has received notices from the EPA and others that it has been identified as a potentially responsible party under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended, or other federal or state environmental statutes, at several hazardous waste sites.
The company operates in the United States and, for international transportation, from the United States, pursuant to federal operating authority granted by the U.S. Department of Transportation (the ‘DOT’) and the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. The company’s operations are subject to cargo security and transportation regulations issued by the Transportation Security Administration and regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The company operates under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (the ‘OSH Act’). Under the OSH Act, ArcBest has a responsibility to provide employees a safe workplace. This includes, but is not limited to:
Providing a workplace free from serious recognized hazards and complying with standards, rules, and regulations issued under the OSH Act;
Examining workplace conditions to make sure they conform to applicable Occupational Safety and Health Administration Standards; and
Ensuring employees have and use safe tools and equipment and properly maintain this equipment.
The company’s Asset-Based operations and its Asset-Light segment’s network of third-party contract carriers must comply with industry regulations, including the electronic logging device mandate of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (the ‘FMCSA’) for interstate commercial trucks and hours of service, safety and fitness, and other regulations of the DOT, including requirements related to drug and alcohol testing. The company is subject to the hazardous materials regulations of the FMCSA for its transportation and arrangement for transportation of hazardous materials and explosives, as well as its disposal of hazardous waste.
The company provides transportation and logistics services to and from a number of international locations and is, therefore, subject to a wide variety of domestic and international laws and regulations, including export and import laws. The company is also subject to compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, and holds Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism status for businesses within the company’s Asset-Based and Asset-Light segments.
The company has registered or is pursuing registration of various marks or designs as trademarks in the United States, including, but not limited to ‘ArcBest,’ ‘ABF Freight,’ ‘Panther,’ ‘MoLo,’ ‘U-Pack,’ ‘Vaux,’ and ‘More Than Logistics.’
Research and Development
The company incurred research and development costs of $34.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2024.
History
The company was founded in 1923. It was incorporated in Delaware in 1966. The company was formerly known as Arkansas Best Corporation and changed its name to ArcBest Corporation in 2014.