ArcBest is built to deliver with a strategy anchored in growth, efficiency, and innovation; company announces 2028 financial targets

FORT SMITH, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 29, 2025-- ArcBest^® (Nasdaq: ARCB), a leading, integrated logistics company, today held its 2025 investor day, bringing together investors and analysts to discuss the company’s strategic direction, financial performance and vision for the future. The event outlined ArcBest’s long-term business outlook and roadmap to accelerate growth and deliver sustained value creation.

Built to Deliver: Strategic Pillars to Drive Long-Term Value

During the event, the ArcBest leadership team shared how the company has transformed into a full-service, technology-enabled logistics provider serving more than 30,000 customers in a nearly $400 billion addressable market. By seamlessly integrating asset-based and asset-light solutions, ArcBest serves as a trusted partner through its customer-first approach, values-driven culture, and proven ability to help customers pivot and quickly adapt to keep their supply chains moving.

“ArcBest is built to deliver the future of logistics,” said Judy R. McReynolds, ArcBest chairman and CEO. “Our strategy leverages more than a century of experience and is anchored in a differentiated operating model, a relentless customer focus, and a culture of innovation. The financial targets we presented demonstrate our confidence in delivering sustainable growth and strong returns.”

Seth Runser, ArcBest CEO-elect and president added, “Our path ahead is defined by our three strategic pillars: accelerating profitable growth, increasing efficiency, and driving innovation. Our people are at the heart of our success, and our expert teams are solving increasingly complex logistics challenges for our customers and partners. We are confident in our clear strategy to deliver long-term value.”

Key Highlights

• Unified Go-to-Market Leadership: Combined marketing, yield, sales, and customer service under a single leadership structure. This alignment enhances collaboration, speeds decision-making, and positions the company for sustainable growth.
• Accelerating Profitable Growth Across Solutions: Daily managed solutions shipments have grown at a 44% annual rate since launch, with 90%+ customer retention and a pipeline exceeding $1 billion. Targeted sales campaigns have added approximately 2,000 new core Asset-Based LTL shipments per day, supported by network investments and service excellence initiatives. A strategic pivot toward SMB truckload customers—now representing 40% of revenue, up from 20% in 2021—is delivering results. SMB freight generates 60% higher profit per load, and ArcBest is on track toward its long-term goal of 60% SMB mix.
• Tech-Enabled Pricing Leadership: ArcBest sets the standard for LTL pricing performance through a disciplined, technology-driven approach. By combining premium service with proprietary tools such as an AI-powered cost calculator and a dynamic pricing engine, ArcBest delivers unmatched results: revenue per hundredweight 1.6 times higher and revenue per shipment 1.5 times higher than the LTL industry average.
• Service Excellence: Investments in training, digital tools, key account management, and onboarding are reducing churn and strengthening loyalty. Today, 80% of revenue comes from customers with 10+ year relationships, and multi-solution customers generate 3 times the revenue and profit.
• Network and Fleet Optimization: Expanded LTL network by approximately 800 net doors since 2021, enabling service to 80% of U.S. businesses within one hour, while maintaining one of the youngest, most efficient fleets to reduce costs and enhance safety.
• Operational and Process Improvements: Record trailer utilization has cut total miles by 8 million since 2021. Continuous improvement training initiatives have delivered $12 million in annualized savings, with further scaling planned for 2025 and beyond.
• Innovation Driving Efficiency and Growth: Launched 70+ optimization projects, nearly half that are fully implemented, including city route optimization, which is delivering $13 million in annual savings.
• Technology and Customer-Centric Solutions: ArcBest leverages advanced AI tools and digital platforms to enhance decision-making, improve automation, and deliver superior customer experiences. The company’s innovative Vaux™ solution addresses critical challenges in material handling within a $50 billion market, focusing on greater efficiency and safety. In early 2026, ArcBest will launch ArcBest View™, a unified digital platform designed to simplify quoting, booking, and real-time visibility across all ArcBest solutions.

2028 Targets

The company remains focused on maintaining a balanced approach to capital allocation and a strong balance sheet. Looking ahead to 2028, ArcBest targets:

• Asset-Based Non-GAAP Operating Ratio: 87% - 90%
• Asset-Light Non-GAAP Operating Income: $40 - $70 million
• Consolidated Non-GAAP Diluted EPS: $12 - $15
• Consolidated Operating Cash Flow: $400 - $500 million
• Consolidated Non-GAAP Return on Capital Employed: 16% - 19%

For additional details on these forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to the section titled “Forward-Looking Non-GAAP Financial Measures” in this release.

Webcast and Presentation Materials

A webcast replay of today’s event and accompanying slide deck are available on ArcBest’s website at investors.arcb.com.

About ArcBest

ArcBest ^® (Nasdaq: ARCB) is a multibillion-dollar integrated logistics company that helps keep the global supply chain moving. Founded in 1923 and now with 14,000 employees across 250 campuses and service centers, the company is a logistics powerhouse, using its technology, expertise and scale to connect shippers with the solutions they need — from ground, air and ocean transportation to fully managed supply chains. ArcBest has a long history of innovation that is enriched by deep customer relationships. With a commitment to helping customers navigate supply chain challenges now and in the future, the company is developing ground-breaking technology like Vaux™, one of the TIME Best Inventions of 2023. For more information, visit arcb.com.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We report our financial results in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). However, management believes that certain non-GAAP performance measures and ratios utilized for internal analysis provide analysts, investors, and others the same information that we use internally for purposes of assessing our core operating performance and provides meaningful comparisons between current and prior period results, as well as important information regarding performance trends. The use of certain non-GAAP measures improves comparability in analyzing our performance because it removes the impact of items from operating results that, in management's opinion, do not reflect our core operating performance. Other companies may calculate non-GAAP measures differently; therefore, our calculation may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. Certain information discussed in the scheduled conference call could be considered non-GAAP measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, our reported results. These financial measures should not be construed as better measurements than operating income, net income or earnings per share, as determined under GAAP.

Forward-Looking Non-GAAP Financial Measures

All forward-looking financial targets in this release assume a consolidated tax rate of 25%.

Consolidated non-GAAP earnings per share and non-GAAP return on capital employed are non-GAAP financial measures that most closely correlate with consolidated earnings per share and return on capital employed. These non-GAAP measures exclude purchase accounting amortization, which is expected to total $7M pre-tax in 2028. These non-GAAP measures also exclude innovative technology costs, life insurance proceeds, changes in cash surrender value of life insurance policies and income taxes related to the annual vesting of restricted stock units, each of which cannot be estimated for 2028 and could be material. As a result, we are unable to provide quantitative reconciliations to the most closely correlated GAAP measure.

Non-GAAP Asset-Based Operating Ratio is a non-GAAP financial measure that most closely correlates with Asset-Based Operating Ratio. Non-GAAP Asset-Based OR could be adjusted for non-recurring infrequent or unusual items. Because the timing, amount and nature of any adjustments are unknown, and any adjustments could be material in future periods, we are unable to provide quantitative reconciliations to the most closely correlated GAAP measure.

Asset-Light non-GAAP operating income range of $40M to $70M excludes GAAP impacts from purchase accounting amortization, which are expected to total $7M in 2028. Including these impacts, the Asset-Light GAAP operating income would range from $33M to $63M in 2028. See reconciliation table to the right.

The following is a “safe harbor” statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Certain statements and information in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, among others, statements regarding (I) our expectations about our intrinsic value or our prospects for growth and value creation and (ii) our financial outlook, position, strategies, goals, and expectations. Terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “designed,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “foresee,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “scheduled,” “seek,” “should,” “would,” and similar expressions and the negatives of such terms are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s beliefs, assumptions, and expectations based on currently available information, are not guarantees of future performance, and involve certain risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control). Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, we cannot provide assurance that our expectations will prove to be correct and caution the reader not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Actual outcomes and results could materially differ from what is expressed, implied, or forecasted in these statements due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to: data privacy breaches, cybersecurity incidents, and/or failures of our information systems, including disruptions or failures of services essential to our operations or upon which our information technology platforms rely; interruption or failure of third-party software or information technology systems, including but not limited to licensed software; untimely or ineffective development and implementation of, or failure to realize the potential benefits associated with, new or enhanced technology or processes; the loss or reduction of business from large customers or an overall reduction in our customer base; the timing and performance of growth initiatives and the ability to manage our cost structure; the cost, integration, and performance of acquisitions and the inability to realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition within the expected time period or at all; unsolicited takeover proposals, proxy contests, and other proposals or actions by activist investors; maintaining our corporate reputation and intellectual property rights; establishing and maintaining adequate internal controls over financial reporting; nationwide or global disruption in the supply chain resulting in increased volatility in freight volumes; competitive initiatives and pricing pressures; increased prices for and decreased availability of equipment, including new revenue equipment, and higher costs of equipment-related operating expenses such as maintenance, fuel, and related taxes; availability of fuel, the effect of volatility in fuel prices and the associated changes in fuel surcharges on securing increases in base freight rates, and the inability to collect fuel surcharges; relationships with employees, including unions, and our ability to attract, retain, and upskill employees; unfavorable terms of, or the inability to reach agreement on, future collective bargaining agreements or a workforce stoppage by our employees covered under ABF Freight’s collective bargaining agreement; union employee wages and benefits, including changes in required contributions to multiemployer plans; availability and cost of reliable third-party services; our ability to secure independent owner-operators and/or operational or regulatory issues related to our use of their services; litigation or claims asserted against us; the effects, costs and potential liabilities related to changes in and compliance with, or violation of, existing or future governmental laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, environmental laws and regulations, such as emissions-control regulations and fuel efficiency regulations; default on covenants of financing arrangements and the availability and terms of future financing arrangements; our ability to generate sufficient cash from operations to support significant ongoing capital expenditure requirements and other business initiatives; self-insurance claims, insurance premium costs, and loss of our ability to self-insure; potential impairment of long-lived assets and goodwill and intangible assets; the effects of a widespread outbreak of an illness or disease or any other public health crisis, as well as regulatory measures implemented in response to such events; external events which may adversely affect us or the third parties who provide services for us, for which our business continuity plans may not adequately prepare us, including, but not limited to, the occurrence of natural disasters, health epidemics, geopolitical conflicts, acts of war, cybersecurity incidents, or trade restrictions; general economic conditions and related shifts in market demand that impact the performance and needs of industries we serve and/or limit our customers’ access to adequate financial resources; seasonal fluctuations, adverse weather conditions, natural disasters, and climate change; and other financial, operational, and legal risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in ArcBest Corporation’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, please see our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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Investor Relations Contact:
Amy Mendenhall
Phone: 479-785-6200
Email: invrel@arcb.com

Media Contact:
Autumnn Mahar
Phone: 479-494-8221
Email: amahar@arcb.com

Source: ArcBest