ArcBest

Amid a mixed economic outlook, three less-than-truckload (LTL) executives examined various business drivers, in terms of how they are impacting LTL market and economic conditions, at SMC3 Connections conference, which was recently held in Colorado Springs, Co. The session’s panelists included: Dennis Anderson, Chief Strategy Officer, ArcBest; John Luciani, COO, LTL Solutions, A. Duie Pyle; and Kent Williams, EVP, Sales and Marketing, Averitt.

The Teamsters union has come out guns blazing in the first of four separate negotiations with freight companies in the United States and Canada over the next year. In what is likely merely a negotiating ploy, the Teamsters negotiating committee said a strike authorization had been approved by members covered under ABF Freight’s National Master Freight Agreement (NMFA).

Freight demand did not pick up toward the second half of the first quarter, as it usually does in the LTL sector.

platform, which is focused on modernizing and transforming how freight is loaded, unloaded, and transferred. Entitled Vaux, ArcBest said that through this platform, a trailer’s entire contents can be unloaded in less than five minutes while also provide what it described as complete visibility into freight movement within warehouse facilities, on the dock or over the road.”

With MoLo officially in the fold, ArcBest said it will become a top 15 United States truckload broker and have access to more than 70,000 motor carrier partners.

Fort Smith, Arkansas-based ArcBest, a full-service supply chain logistics provider, said late yesterday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Chicago-based truckload freight brokerage MoLo Solutions LLC. ArcBest said that this transaction is comprised of a cash payment at closing of $235 million from available funds and subject to post-closing adjustments and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

YRC Worldwide, a holding company that collectively controls about 10% of the $46 billion less-than-truckload (LTL) marketplace, is trimming its quarterly losses and going back to its branding roots. It is resurrecting the venerable “Yellow” brand.

The first economic shock waves of the COVID-19 pandemic have started to wash across the first quarter earnings reports of the leading publicly held less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, with more bad news coming later in the year.

Effective Aug. 1, it’s going to be more expensive to ship air on ABF Freight System and other units of ArcBest Corp. The parent of the nation’s seventh-largest LTL carrier is joining most of the rest of the major players in the $36 billion LTL sector by introducing what it calls “space based pricing” – what most of the rest of the industry calls “dimensional” or “dim-weight” pricing.

When Judy McReynolds took over as board chairman last year, she began accelerating ArcBest’s move away from its traditional, unionized LTL operation into a new, more diversified approach to transportation.

Arkansas Best Corp., parent of 90-year-old ABF Freight System (the nation’s eighth-largest LTL carrier with $1.7 billion in revenue last year) has changed its name to ArcBest Corp., effective May 1. Its stock symbol has changed from ABFS to ARCB.