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ArcBest’s Runser says demand 'green shoots' are emerging
Increase in weight per shipment boosts Q3 profit, revenue
An ABF Freight truck in Oregon with three trailers. ABF Freight is ArcBest's primary LTL brand. (ABF Freight via Facebook)
Key Takeaways:
- ArcBest CEO Seth Runser said early signs of a demand upturn emerged in the fourth quarter despite mixed freight conditions.
- ArcBest’s third-quarter profit rose 31.6% to $51.7 million as tighter truckload capacity and higher rates benefited its LTL operations.
- ArcBest expects ABF Freight’s fourth-quarter operating ratio to deteriorate 50 to 150 basis points, outperforming its historical seasonal decline.
The early signs of an upturn in demand are emerging in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to ArcBest Corp. President and CEO Seth Runser.
Shipment levels remained moribund earlier in 2026 as rates rose, and the demand environment is still mixed, but “green shoots” are evident, ArcBest’s top executive told analysts and investors during the company’s third-quarter 2026 earnings call Nov. 4.
An upturn in demand is typical in any freight market upcycle. But the 2026 rebound in freight market conditions, and rates in particular, is atypical.
RELATED: LTL carriers benefit in Q3 from rebounding freight market
Capacity reductions due to federal enforcement initiatives drove the upcycle, ending the longest freight market downturn in industry memory.
Fort Smith, Ark.-based ArcBest already benefited from the truckload segment capacity decline and rates rising in the most recent quarter, with spillover from the truckload arena to the less-than-truckload segment of the freight market.
The company reported a profit of $51.7 million in Q3, an increase of 31.6% compared with $39.3 million a year earlier. Overall, the company’s revenue totaled $1.21 billion in the most recent quarter, a 15.2% increase compared with $1.05 billion in the year-ago period.
ArcBest’s asset-based division — made up largely of LTL carrier ABF Freight — posted revenue of $798.6 million in Q3, a 9.9% increase compared with $726.5 million in the same period 12 months earlier.
The division’s tonnage per day increased 9.6% to 12,313 tons in Q3 from 11,238 tons. The unit’s weight per shipment rose 13% year over year to 1,204 pounds from 1,065.
In the most recent quarter, the unit reported an operating ratio of 90.4, compared with 92.5 a year earlier. A carrier’s OR provides insight on how well a company is balancing its costs and revenue generation. The lower the ratio, the better a company’s performance.
ArcBest executives told analysts that intentional changes to the division’s freight profile also improved the OR, which they expect to outperform previous years’ fourth-quarter levels.
Historically, ABF’s OR deteriorated 180 basis points or 1.8 in Q4 compared with Q3, but ArcBest expects ABF’s OR in the final three months of 2026 to regress just 50 to 150 basis points, Chief Financial Officer Matt Beasley said.
Runser added that tonnage decreases about 3.4% between September and October historically, but this year the decline is only about 1%.
Another tailwind in Q3, executives said, was the introduction of additional technology options, including shipment execution and visibility platform ArcBest View and the company’s Asset-Light Transportation Operations Management System, which began rolling out for ArcBest’s expedited operations in Q3.
The ArcBest View platform is up to more than 3,600 monthly users since launching in May, Runser told analysts.
ArcBest updated the platform in the middle of October too, adding freight classification simplification, improved real-time shipment visibility and the ability to add cargo coverage for some shipments.
ABF operates 240 service centers with more than 9,600 dock doors across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, according to the company’s website. ArcBest operates 4,229 tractors and 24,125 trailers, according to data provided to Transport Topics.
ArcBest ranks No. 14 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America, and ABF Freight ranks No. 7 in the LTL segment of the freight market. ArcBest is also No. 43 on the TT Top 100 logistics companies list.
