Incoming ArcBest CEO: The network is in ‘a great spot’

Speaking at the carrier’s first investor day in a decade, Seth Runser told analysts his team has only a few terminal questions left to address after adding 800 doors since 2021.

Geert De Lombaerde

Oct. 2, 2025

4 min read

Key Highlights

The company plans to reduce its operating ratio of ABF Freight to between 87% and 90% by 2028, with pricing growth and some shipment volume increases as key drivers.
Real estate spending will focus on maintaining existing facilities rather than expanding the network, with about $40 million to $50 million allocated for maintenance through 2028.
Investments in AI and automation are generating millions in savings annually, with further technological projects underway to enhance efficiency.

After spending more than $1 billion since the beginning of 2022 to grow their equipment, real estate, and tech capacities, the leaders of ArcBest Corp. said this week the next few years will be about growing into those new shoes.

Speaking at an expansive September 30 gathering of investors and analysts—the first that ArcBest, No. 24 on the FleetOwner 500 list of the largest U.S. for-hire carriers, has hosted in about a decade—executives said they’re looking to build on the work done since the pandemic to build capacity and improve efficiency. A significant financial goal is to increase operating cash flows to between $400 million and $500 million, up from their current five-year average of around $300 million.

At a high level, that push includes, among other things:

Lowering the operating ratio of the less-than-truckload ABF Freight unit to between 87% and 90% by 2028 from 91.2% last year and 92.9% in the 12 months that ended June 30. CFO Matt Beasley said pricing growth will play a big part in that, while the ArcBest team is counting on low-single-digit growth in shipments over the next three years.
Focusing on small and medium-sized businesses in ArcBest’s truckload division. President Seth Runser, who will succeed Judy McReynolds as CEO in January, said 80% of that group’s revenues came from large customers in 2021. That figure is now 60%, and Runser said his goal is to shrink it to 40% and have smaller firms account for 60% of sales. Loads from small and midsized companies, he added, are typically 60% more profitable for ArcBest.
Growing the wide-ranging Managed Solutions business so that it contributes about $25 million in operating income in 2028 compared to $13 million in 2024.

President Seth Runser will take over from Judy McReynolds as ArcBest's CEO at the beginning of 2026.

It also means trimming capital spending on trucks, other equipment, and real estate, something many of the industry’s most prominent fleets have this year signaled they’re doing. ArcBest’s capex outlays this year are on pace to be roughly $250 million—with about $135 million earmarked for trucks and trailers and another $70 million or so dedicated to real estate projects—but Runser and Beasley said those numbers will fall in coming years.

The ArcBest team has grown the company's door count by about 800, or roughly 9%, since the end of 2021.

On the real estate side of things, Runser said the addition of approximately 800 terminal doors since 2021 has put ArcBest in a position to service customers with pinch points that became painful during the post-pandemic rebound. That means facility spending through 2028 will focus primarily on maintaining ArcBest’s roughly 240 facilities in good condition, rather than adding new ones to a network that now numbers about 9,600 doors.

“We really just have a handful of locations that we need to address [where] we just haven’t found the right opportunity so far,” Runser told analysts. “But for the most part, the majority of that work is done […] You’ll probably see around $40 million to $50 million around our maintenance capex for real estate.”

Runser and his colleagues also showcased some technological projects at their investor day. He said one of those, using artificial intelligence to improve route planning in some cities, has generated more than $13 million in savings on an annual basis and is now in the process of being rolled out more broadly.

Other AI projects that automate quotes or some customer calls have collectively generated another $1 million in savings this year. As some of those efficiencies materialize, executives are retraining workers to help accelerate ArcBest’s work to grow its roster of small- and midsized clients.

Shares of ArcBest (Ticker: ARCB) were changing hands around $69.54 on the afternoon of Oct. 1 after climbing slightly on the day of the executives’ presentation. They are essentially unchanged over the past six months, leaving the company’s market capitalization at about $1.6 billion.

About the Author

Geert De Lombaerde

Senior Editor

A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of experience in business journalism. Since 2021, he has written about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications FleetOwner, Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, Oil & Gas Journal, and T&D World.

With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati. He later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector and many of its publicly traded companies.