ArcBest Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Navigating Volatility with Pricing Discipline and AI-Driven Efficiency

Operator: Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the ArcBest First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I will now turn it over to Amy Mendenhall, Vice President, Treasury and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Amy Mendenhall, Vice President, Treasury and Investor Relations, ArcBest: Good morning. I’m here today with Seth Runser, our President and CEO, and Matt Beasley, our Chief Financial Officer. Other members of our executive leadership team will also be available during the Q&A session. Before we begin, please note that some of the comments we make today will include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which are detailed in the forward-looking statement section of our earnings release and SEC filings. To provide meaningful comparisons, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures that are outlined and described in the tables of our earnings release. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures are provided in the additional information section of the presentation slides. You can access the conference call slide deck on our website at arcb.com in our 8-K filed earlier this morning or follow along on the webcast.

Now I will turn the call over to Seth.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Thank you, Amy, and good morning, everyone. The first quarter brought a challenging operating environment with severe winter weather, higher fuel prices, and continued uncertainty. Even so, we remain focused on what we can control, executing our long-term strategy with discipline and advancing initiatives that support profitable growth, efficiency, and innovation. I am incredibly proud of how the ArcBest team responded. In a dynamic environment, they stayed disciplined, remained close to our customers, and continued delivering flexible, efficient, and integrated solutions to meet evolving needs. Customer demand has remained steady, and we continue to see improvement in our pipeline. While the timing and pace of a broader recovery remains difficult to predict, conditions are becoming more constructive. Leading indicators of manufacturing activity have moved into expansion, which is supportive of future freight demand.

At the same time, truckload markets are showing early signs of tightening as capacity continues to exit the industry, driven in part by regulatory enforcement and higher operating costs. In our customer conversations, there’s an increasing emphasis on execution, reliability, and visibility, and those priorities align closely with how ArcBest serves its customers. Against that backdrop, we will launch ArcBest View in May. This platform enables customers to quote, book, and track shipments across our logistics solutions through a single intuitive interface. We developed ArcBest View in close partnership with customers, and early feedback has been very encouraging. Combined with our integrated solutions and continued progress in our digital capabilities, this platform enhances our ability to help customers respond quickly, manage complexity, and build more resilient supply chains. Importantly, this launch reflects a broader set of capabilities we have been intentionally building over time.

Our investments in the network, technology, and operating tools have strengthened execution today while expanding what we can deliver for customers going forward. We continue to advance the initiatives we outlined at Investor Day, and our team remains focused and aligned on achieving our long-term targets. Let me walk you through our progress for the quarter. In the asset base segment, daily shipments increased 2% year-over-year to nearly 20,000 shipments per day. While severe winter weather affected volumes and service earlier in the quarter, service has since normalized and remains at a high level. The investments we’ve made in our network, equipment, and labor planning tools position us to sustain strong, consistent service through the summer months and across the balance of the year. We also remain disciplined on pricing.

Deferred price increases averaged 6% in the first quarter, our strongest result since the third quarter of 2022. That reflects our continued focus on revenue quality. In addition, the expansion of our dynamic quote pool has given us greater ability to make real-time pricing decisions, allowing us to be more selective and further optimize yield and profitability. Demand for our managed solutions offering continued to build during the quarter, resulting in another record performance and double-digit growth in daily shipments. This momentum reflects a stronger pipeline, deeper customer engagements, and the value our team brings as they help customers manage increasingly complex supply chains. In truckload, we remain focused on optimizing freight mix and maintaining pricing discipline. Revenue per shipment improved meaningfully both year-over-year and sequentially, driven by a tighter capacity market, higher fuel prices, and improved yield quality.

Across the business, we continue to make progress on efficiency and innovation initiatives. Continuous improvement training has now been implemented across approximately 75% of the network. Teams are focused on process discipline, safety, and adoption of new tools, and that work is producing tangible results. To date, these efforts have generated $32 million in annualized cost savings. With additional benefits expected as implementation continues through the remainder of the year. We are also making meaningful progress with our city route optimization project and remain on track to complete the latest phases of deployment. This AI-enabled initiative is reducing manual work, improving route planning, and increasing asset utilization across the network. Phases two and three are expected to be fully operational in the coming months. To date, the program has delivered $15 million in annualized savings while also improving network efficiency and service.

The success we are seeing with city route optimization reflects a broader philosophy at ArcBest. We start with strong ideas, test them in the business, learn quickly, refine what works, and then scale with discipline. That approach is shaping how we deploy AI and is guiding the next wave of initiatives across our technology roadmap. Our AI strategy is deliberate and closely aligned with our business priorities. We are deploying AI where it can create meaningful operational and financial impact, and we are embedding AI capabilities into core initiatives across the organization. Just as important, we are not forcing a single solution across a complex business. Instead, we are applying the right tools for the right needs. This approach allows us to move with speed and purpose while maintaining the governance required to ensure these solutions are secure, responsible, and scalable.

We believe AI delivers the most value when it strengthens our people and enables better decision-making. Our approach is practical and disciplined. We are investing in initiatives with clear return, partnering externally where it accelerates progress, and combining advanced technology with the network, processes, and expertise that already differentiate ArcBest. Most importantly, our customers remain at the center of this work. Digital tools are helping us serve them better, while the expertise, responsiveness, and reliability they expect from ArcBest remain unchanged. Across our technology roadmap, including AI-driven initiatives, we are aligning resources, simplifying processes, and using data more effectively to help offset inflationary cost pressures, improve decision-making, and lower our cost to serve. That work is driving meaningful productivity gains across the business. In Asset Light, for example, we continue to improve how we manage and optimize buy rates, particularly as market conditions shift.

Initiatives such as offer collection, automated negotiation, and capacity sourcing augmentation are enabling faster, more informed decisions. Taken together, our technology and AI initiatives are strengthening our business. They are improving how we work, enhancing operational performance, and helping ArcBest execute effectively today while building for the long term. Looking ahead, we remain focused on removing barriers and simplifying how work gets done across the organization. That means enabling teams to collaborate more effectively, move faster, and stay focused on what matters most to our customers. As we continue to align and streamline our operation, we are strengthening our execution today and building a more agile, scalable ArcBest for the future. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Matt to walk through the financial results.

Matt Beasley, Chief Financial Officer, ArcBest: Thank you, Seth. Good morning, everyone. In the first quarter, disciplined execution, operational focus, and cost control enabled us to navigate the challenging environment while continuing to position the business for long-term success. On a consolidated basis, first quarter revenue was $1 billion, up 3% year-over-year. Non-GAAP operating income was $13 million compared to $17 million in the prior year period. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.32 compared to $0.51 in the first quarter of 2025. At the segment level, Asset-Based operating income declined by $9 million year-over-year, while Asset Light generated non-GAAP operating income of $3 million, an improvement of $4 million from last year. Turning to the Asset-Based segment, first quarter revenue was $655 million, up 2% on a per-day basis.

ABS operating ratio was 97.3%, which was 140 basis points higher than last year and 110 basis points higher sequentially. Daily tonnage increased 7%, reflecting a 2% increase in shipments per day and a 5% increase in weight per shipment. Our large and growing digital quote pool continues to improve our visibility into demand and expand our options within the network. That has allowed us to target certain heavier shipments that fit well operationally and generate attractive incremental profit contributions. Revenue per shipment increased slightly, supported by the higher weight per shipment, but that was partially offset by a 4% decline in revenue per hundred weight, which primarily reflects the shift in freight profile toward heavier shipments.

On the cost side, operating expenses increased for several reasons, including additional labor needed to support shipment growth, annual contract increases in union wage rates, higher fuel prices, and increased depreciation expense associated with our equipment investments. Turning to trends so far in April, shipments per day are down 1% year-over-year, while weight per shipment is up 6%, resulting in daily tonnage growth of 5%. We are beginning to see modest improvement in truckload-rated shipments, which along with other changes in freight profile, is contributing to the higher weight per shipment. Revenue per shipment in April has increased 10% year-over-year, driven by the heavier freight profile and a 4% increase in revenue per hundredweight, largely reflecting higher fuel surcharge revenue. Excluding fuel surcharge, revenue per hundredweight declined in the low single digits, primarily due to changes in freight profile.

Sequentially, from March to April, weight per shipment is flat. Shipments per day are up 1% and tonnage per day is also up 1%. Revenue per shipment has improved by about 4% due to a 4% increase in revenue per hundredweight, largely reflecting higher fuel costs. Excluding fuel surcharge revenue per hundredweight was slightly positive on a sequential basis. Fuel impacts became more pronounced in April than they were in the first quarter, which included only one month of elevated fuel prices. Higher fuel costs increased fuel surcharge revenue, but they also raised operating costs across the network. While our fuel surcharge mechanisms are designed to recover higher fuel costs over time, periods of rapid fuel price movement can create short-term timing differences between when revenue is recognized and when those costs are incurred.

Historically, ABF’s non-GAAP operating ratio improves by approximately 350 basis points from the first quarter to the second quarter. Based on current trends, we expect second quarter performance to improve sequentially by approximately 400-500 basis points. This outlook reflects continued momentum in our commercial pipeline, disciplined execution on pricing initiatives, and the impact of recent fuel price movements. Turning to the Asset Light Segment, first quarter revenue was $378 million, up 7% on a daily basis year-over-year. Shipments per day increased 10% and reached a new first quarter record as strong growth in managed solutions more than offset our strategic reduction of less profitable truckload volumes.

Revenue per shipment declined 3% as higher rates associated with tightening capacity and increased fuel costs were more than offset by a greater mix of managed business, which typically involves smaller shipment sizes and lower revenue per shipment. We also made meaningful progress on the cost side. Selling, general, and administrative expense per shipment declined 15% to the lowest level on record, driven by productivity initiatives and the higher mix of managed business, which carries a lower cost to serve. Employee productivity also reached a record high, with shipments per person per day increasing 26%. As a result, the Asset Light segment delivered non-GAAP operating income of $3 million in the first quarter. Turning to April trends for Asset Light, daily revenue is up approximately 24% year-over-year, driven by 17% shipment growth led by our managed business.

Revenue per shipment has increased 7%, reflecting higher fuel costs and early signs of tightening capacity in the truckload market. Looking ahead, we expect second quarter non-GAAP operating income in Asset Light to be in the range of approximately $1 million-$3 million. This outlook reflects continued yield discipline, active cost management, and improved productivity performance, which together provide a solid foundation for long-term profitable growth. Turning to capital allocation, we continue to take a balanced long-term approach that supports growth while maintaining strong financial discipline. Many of the network, technology, and productivity investments needed to support future growth are already in place. As market conditions improve, we believe the business is well-positioned to benefit from improving demand without a meaningful increase in capital requirements, which should support attractive returns on invested capital. Returning capital to shareholders remains an important priority.

In the first quarter of 2026, we returned more than $10 million through a combination of share repurchases and dividends. Looking ahead, we expect to remain opportunistic with repurchases based on share price while continuing to prioritize high return organic investments in a disciplined approach to leverage. Our balance sheet remains a significant strength. We have ample liquidity and a net debt to EBITDA ratio that is well below the S&P 500 average. This financial position provides flexibility to navigate uncertainty, invest where we see attractive returns, and respond quickly as opportunities emerge. As Seth said, we are staying focused on what we can control, executing our long-term strategy with discipline, and advancing initiatives that support profitable growth, efficiency, and innovation. As we look ahead, we remain confident in our strategic direction and in our ability to deliver the long-term targets we outlined at Investor Day.

With that, operator, we are ready to open the call for questions.

Operator: As a reminder, if you’d like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, you’ll be limited to 1 question per participant. Your first question comes from the line of Ravi Shanker from Morgan Stanley. Your line is live.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup0: Great. Thanks. Morning, everyone. It says at the top of the call that you’re seeing conditions becoming more constructive. Can you help unpack that a little bit? You know, which end markets, maybe which parts of the country you’re seeing that, and do you expect that to be fairly broad-based through the course of the year?

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Hey, Ravi. It’s Seth. Thanks for the question and good morning. We are seeing demand trends that have started to stabilize, though overall levels still remain below mid-cycle norms. Manufacturing and housing continues to pressure our volumes like we’ve talked about in the past. That’s particularly around weight per shipment, which really remains below normalized levels for the network. Despite these headwinds, we were able to grow shipments by 2% in Asset-Based year-over-year. Our dynamic shipments are starting to trend heavier as well. That reflects some improving freight selection that we’ve had in the network. April tonnage and shipments have also increased sequentially.

They’ve tracked in line with normal seasonality, and that’s an encouraging sign as we move through the rest of the year. Really where our focus is on pricing discipline, service consistency and cost control, while really staying closely engaged with our customers during this volatile time with fuel prices and everything that’s going on. Capacity fundamentals continue to move in a more constructive direction, and that really provides the earliest sign of a more balanced market ahead. You’ve heard about the ongoing truckload carrier exits, just tighter regulatory environment, aging industry fleets, which makes me happy that we’ve invested in our fleet throughout this cycle. The timing of the demand inflection still remains uncertain, but the supply rationalization is progressing, which is good.

You’ve seen manufacturing PMI move into expansion territory these past 3 months. That’s just an important directional indicator of where freight demand is going. Housing automotive still is constrained. They could improve as, you know, rate cuts and things like that happen hopefully later in this year. As conditions normalize, our available network capacity, strong customer relationships, and our pipeline position as well to capture incremental demand efficiently and productively. I’ve spent a lot of time with customers over these last 3 months. Really what’s clear to me is they’re gravitating towards partners they trust, organizations that can bring consistency, insight and stability during times like this because it’s just continued to be a rapid change.

We really view markets like this as an opportunity, and we’ve made purposeful investments throughout this cycle to ensure we’re positioned ahead of the next inflection. In short, we’re investing, listening, and executing, delivering value for our customers and shareholders regardless of the broader environment.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Chris Wetherbee from Wells Fargo. Your line is live.

Chris Wetherbee, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Hey, thanks. Good morning. you know, I guess I wanted to pick up a little bit on some of the comments you made about TL-rated freight and maybe think about the broader truckload market and what it might mean in terms of volume shift back over. It seems like maybe on the margin you’re seeing that. You noted regulatory improvement was kind of moving in your favor there. I guess as you think about the rest of the year beyond, you know, what you’ve seen so far in April, I guess, what does that opportunity look like? What would you expect to see it in terms of a tailwind from a volume standpoint?

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Hey, Chris, Seth here again. I’ll talk through the truckload side, and then Eddie can make some comments on just some of that truckload rated business moving into asset base. On the truckload side, most enterprise shippers are responding positively and granting increases where needed because they’re seeing what’s going on with capacity. We’ve seen a shift in the shorter term rate increases as well as mini bids to mitigate our spot exposure while maintaining the service that our customers expect. Like I said in my previous comment, demand is more stable, but the supply constraints continue due to increased costs, the regulatory pressure, all those things that are going on. Spot rates are currently exceeding contract by 15%-20%.

Normalized for fuel, we’ve seen contract increases in the low to mid single-digits in the first quarter year-over-year. We expect as we move through second and third quarter, it’s probably going to be in the low to mid double-digit range. This is from the truckload side. Moving forward, we’re going to continue to optimize our truckload volumes to bring on profitable new business and shed some business that we can’t profitably execute on. I’ve been really impressed by the team. If you look at our asset-light in the first quarter, we delivered $3 million in profitability, and all of last year, we only delivered $1.5 million through all of 2025. Really proud of the team and the execution there.

I’ll turn it over to Eddie to talk about some of the truckload rated shipments moving into the asset base network.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup5: Yeah, Chris, this is Eddie. You know, Seth kind of mentioned this earlier, we have seen a tighter truckload capacity market that’s producing higher spot rates. You combine that with higher fuel prices, we’re starting to see some early signs of business push into our integrated logistics solutions and LTL. Really the first signs in our transactional markets. You know, we’re up to over 250,000 quotes a day. We have an opportunity to get early signs of, you know, potential spillover back from truckload to LTL.

It’s really just given us a great opportunity to find the highest quality revenue that’s in those opportunities and then deploy, you know, whether it’s dynamic pricing or one of our volume quote facilities to kind of capture that business where it makes sense in our network. I wouldn’t say it’s a robust spillover, but there are some early signs of some of that coming back to the LTL and our integrated logistics offerings.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jason Seidl from TD Cowen. Your line is live.

Jason Seidl, Analyst, TD Cowen: Thanks, operator. Morning, gentlemen. Wanted to talk a little bit about your comment that we’re sort of not yet near the mid-cycle. You know, you’re clearly getting much better pricing right now, which is pretty impressive. As we move towards the sort of mid-cycle demand stage, where do you see pricing going, all of the things being equal in the truckload space?

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Yeah. Hey, Jason. This is Seth again.

Jason Seidl, Analyst, TD Cowen: Thank you.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Good morning. Core LTL pricing continues to improve. That’s really supported by the rational market, the disciplined actions that we’ve continued to take, even despite the softer environment. We expect that discipline to hold as market conditions evolve. You saw in our notes that deferred contract renewals increased 6% in the quarter. That’s our strongest result since the third quarter of 2022. That really reinforces the confidence and durability of those core customer relationships that we had. The customers are still with us, just shipping less, as we’ve talked about throughout this cycle. As volumes recover and capacity tightens, we expect that pricing discipline to persist and ultimately translate into further rate improvement.

Also, as volume improves, we expect more core business from our current customers because what I mentioned was the retention stats earlier. What Eddie touched on a little bit ago was our strategy for the dynamic quoted freight. It’s unchanged, but its effectiveness improves as that quote pool expands, like we talked about at our Investor Day. A larger quote pool gives us more selection within the targeted freight universe, and that allows us to choose what freight fits best in our network to deliver high quality pricing and profitability. Those shipments have trended a little bit heavier as that quote pool has expanded over the past six months, I’d say. As that optionality increases, we get that better pricing.

As we look at our core pipeline, it continues to be a lot stronger. As we get new business wins, we get flexibility to optimize mix and maximize incremental profit contribution. We’ve had a long history of pricing discipline. We evaluate books of business based on how each account performs in the network, not a single pricing metric. And we remain focused on profitable growth, ensuring that we’re properly paid for the value that we deliver. We continue to make targeted investments in service efficiency, enhancing the customer value proposition while improving our cost structure. ArcBest View rolling out in May is just another example of that. The feedback’s been great from our customers thus far.

We’re going to continue to focus on serving our customers efficiently and make sure that we’re pricing disciplined as we move through the cycle.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Scott Group from Wolfe Research. Your line is live.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup1: Hey, thanks. Good morning. With the OR guide for Q2 outperforming seasonality, any way to put some, you know, additional color there on what’s driving that? How much of that’s sort of the flow through of fuel versus maybe tonnage getting better? Just any thoughts there? Just one more follow-up on fuel. If I look back at prior periods where we’ve seen, you know, such big increases in diesel costs, we’ve typically seen a bigger spike in rev per shipment trends, rev per hundred weight trends. Is there anything different about sort of how we should think about fuel for you right now than maybe what we’ve thought about in the past?

Matt Beasley, Chief Financial Officer, ArcBest: Scott, hey, it’s Matt. You know, just thinking about some of the sequential trends as we think about 1st quarter moving to 2nd quarter. You know, really it’s across the board where we’re seeing outperformance versus what we would expect. That’s, you know, if you look at revenue per day, shipments per day, daily tonnage, weight per shipment, revenue per hundred weight. You know, all of those, as we look to the current projection for the 2nd quarter, are outperforming where we see the 10-year history. Certainly fuel, you know, was a factor in the 1st quarter, some of the fuel volatility. We still would have been within our guidance range for the quarter, even without the fuel changes. You know, the fuel changes are not the primary driver of the outperformance in the 2nd quarter.

They are, you know, a driver of the performance that we’re projecting, but really it’s strength across the business, both on the commercial side and on the yield side that are driving the sequential OR performance. Again, you know, if we look at the tenure history, we see around 350 basis points of improvement when we move from the first quarter to the second quarter. When you take into account the strength that we’re seeing, again, like I said, across the board, across revenue, shipments, tonnage, weight per shipment, revenue per hundred weight pricing, take all that together, and that puts us in that 400-500 basis points of improvement that we’re projecting for the quarter.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jordan Alliger from Goldman Sachs. Your line is live.

Jordan Alliger, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Yeah. Hi, morning. I just wanted to come back to sort of the weight per shipment. I know you guys have mentioned, you know, your change in freight profile and mix is a big part of it. Of course, historically, weight per shipment’s often been correlated to improvement in the economy. I’m just wondering, is some part of this weight per shipment strength that you’re seeing even as we go into April, related in your mind to the economy, or is it truly just the mix shift? Thanks.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Hey, Jordan, it’s Seth here, good morning. Our weight per shipment on our core business is still being impacted by just the softer manufacturing economy, that can cause shippers just to reduce the shipment size like we’ve discussed in the past. As I mentioned, our retention’s in a great place, so we’re starting to see our core business start to produce more. I mentioned dynamic shipments have been trending heavier, so that’s going to impact weight per shipment. That really is the direct result as we’ve expanded that quote pool. It’s allowed us to be more selective in real time, optimizing our yield, our network, and our profile and profitability. That increased visibility and optionality of that larger quote pool, really allows us to accept certain heavier shipments that fit well within our network.

In April, year-over-year weight per shipment, it’s up about 6%, and that’s impacted by the heavier dynamic shipments as well as a little bit of those truckload rated shipments that Eddie mentioned earlier as well. We’re beginning to see modest improvements. But I would say it’s still pretty early there. As a reminder, we’re impacted a little bit more than others on weight per shipment because the U-Pack service that we offer, with housing market where it is and interest rates, it’s resulted in fewer household good moves, which are generally smaller amount of shipments, but just heavier in nature. Normally from first to second quarter, we see our U-Pack business start to improve, but it’s still below historical norms, we got a lot of operating leverage there.

We believe that more of this truckload freight is gonna move back into the LTL space as capacity normalizes in the truckload space that we’ve mentioned already as well. Also our pipeline within our managed business continues to grow. As managed grows, that feeds our other service lines, and we get to select the best freight for the network. Really, we’ve been through a lot of cycles in our history, and there’s still a lot of uncertainty out there. What I’ve been proud of the team is they’ve focused on execution, staying close to our customers, and being disciplined with price ’cause we are built for any environment, whether it’s up, down, any way.

What customers appreciate in these conversations is they’re able to partner with us and say, "Hey, my fuel’s going up," or, "This is going on," or, "I can’t find capacity." We partner with our customers because we want to say yes. That’s really what our strategy is. We have one of the best teams in the industry, and I’m confident in our ability to execute in the short term and the long term, regardless of the environment that’s going on.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Bruce Chan from Stifel. Your line is live.

Bruce Chan, Analyst, Stifel: Yeah. Thanks, operator, morning, everybody. Just a question here on the Asset-Light business. I know you’ve been pretty focused on productivity there. Seems like a good chunk of that is coming from, you know, the mix of managed business. Assuming that we’re kicking off a cycle here, how are you thinking about shipment growth and, you know, maybe the need for additional headcount in truck brokerage? Sorry if I missed this in the opening remarks, maybe you can remind us of what the spot to contract mix looks like there too.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Hey, Bruce. Seth again. I’ll start out, and then if Mac has anything to add, he’ll chime in as well. I’m really proud of the team for delivering $3 million in non-GAAP op income for the first quarter. Like I said earlier, we made $1.5 in all of 2025, so we started out the year strong there. We’re encouraged by the continued truckload capacity exits that we’ve seen. We did see strong shipment growth led by Managed, who had another record quarter. That speaks to the investments that we’ve made throughout this cycle to position Managed as a truly integrated logistics company.

Operating expenses were lower, we ended the quarter with record high productivity within Asset-Light and also record low SG&A cost per shipment, which all contributed to that improved productivity. This is due to the investments that we’ve made throughout this cycle in technology, in trying to grow without having to add the headcount, and also what we’ve done to develop our employees to make sure that they’re ready for the next cycle. Shipments and revenue are strengthening in April. We mentioned our op income range there of $1 million-$3 million in our 8-K, we continue to take actions to adjust our cost to better align resources to match business levels. What I’m really excited about is Mac has three months under his belt. He’s been a huge addition to our team.

We continue to work to improve the profitability of our account base. We’re focused on improving productivity, with technology deployments. We’re in the early stages a lot of that. I’ll turn it over to Matt to see if he has anything to add.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup5: Bruce, it’s Mac. Maybe just one more thing I’ll add. If you look at the spot versus contract mix that we had over the last year, you know, it’s pretty evenly split, roughly 50/50, and that’s the level that we saw as we moved through the first quarter as well.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Tom Wadewitz from UBS Financial.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup4: Yeah. Great. Good morning. Wanted to circle back a bit. I know you had some questions on, I think, you know, pricing environment and LTL. If we look at it in, say, in fuel and trucking, right, you’ve got, you know, revenue per shipment sounds like it’s up pretty nicely in April, but it also sounds like a lot of that is fuel. When you think, like, what’s the lag we should consider with the stronger the 6% contract renewals and also weight per shipment if you think of it in, say, ex fuel revenue per shipment, right? Because it sounds like that was maybe kind of flattish if you look at April versus March.

Just to get some more perspective on when do we see that improvement in, you know, pricing drivers flow through to revenue per shipment ex fuel. You know, what’s the timeline on that?

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Thanks, Tom. This is Seth. I’ll start, then turn it over to Eddie. I just wanted to hit on fuel a little bit because fuel surcharge is really just one component of pricing. Generally protects us with our fuel surcharge mechanism as fuel price increase, as a decrease, it protects or helps customers positively. Fuel surcharge, it covers more than just fuel costs, and that’s what I wanted to jump in because it’s propane for forklifts, it’s rail, it’s purchased transportation. It’s all those other costs that I wanted to mention. It’s not just on the revenue and the freight we move. We also have additional costs there. I’ll turn it over to Eddie to talk about your other question.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup5: Yeah. I really think about from a yield perspective, this was something we really started to focus on the second half of last year. With a really strong result in first quarter this year, over 6% with our increases, you know, we’re building to, I think, a better overall mix of business in our core LTL.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: You know, obviously with the fuel prices going up, you know, it doesn’t just come with higher revenue, there’s higher costs. The timing of the fuel surcharge and those costs sometimes makes it a little harder to see, you know, the benefit that would come from that situation. Overall, we feel really good about the mix of business we have. The yield discipline is strong. We’re committed to continuing to improve on our prices with LTL. What gives us confidence in that is, you know, we’ve had a strong growth in 2025. That’s continuing 2026. Our sales pipeline is robust and continues to be strong, especially with our managed solutions.

You know, we’ve mentioned this several times now, but an expanding quote pool is gonna allow us to really further adjust our business mix to get us the most profitable business for our systems and our networks. Feel really good about where we are from a yield perspective. You know, even with fuel potentially changing up or down, our yield fundamentals are going to continue to stay strong.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup4: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Brian Ossenbeck from J.P. Morgan. Your line is live.

Brian Ossenbeck, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe just a question.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup4: Good morning.

Brian Ossenbeck, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Hey, good morning, Seth. Just on the, maybe Matt can chime in too, just on the all the headlines we’ve seen in terms of truckload brokerage with the risks of chameleon carriers, with bigger focus coming up with the Montgomery case, of course, and how that safety risk might be extended or liability risk might be extended to truckload brokers. Just want to see if there’s anything you’re doing with your carrier base, based on some of the recent headlines and what’s coming down the pipe from potentially regulatory and even from the Supreme Court. You know, if that were to go through and the the court finds and that the liability should be extended to the brokers, what do you think that does for the industry in general?

I know there’s a lot of moving parts out there, but, clearly this looks like it’s going to be something we talk about for a while, so love to get your thoughts on that. Thank you.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Yep. Yeah, Brian, thanks. This is Seth here. I’ll answer your first question just about everything that’s been in the news there. Safety’s really always been fundamentally how ArcBest operates. While the recent media attention’s really focused on specific situations, we really remain focused on disciplined execution and consistent operating practices that align with the applicable laws and regulations. We use a structured compliance-based process to select and monitor third-party carriers with ongoing visibility into authority, insurance, safety status. Carriers that don’t meet those requirements are not eligible to move freight for us. The FMCSA provides this national regulatory framework for carrier safety. We operate within that, obviously, but we also invest in systems and processes that support a disciplined risk management and operational consistency.

At this time, we don’t expect these developments to change our outlook or our approach to safety and compliance because it’s already embedded in our operation and reflected in how we run the business. Our customers expect us to operate safely and responsibly, and we continue to engage in open and constructive dialogue with our customers to support their long-term growth goals. As far as truckload capacity and what’s going on with all that, when you look at the continued supply chain exits of the truckload factors, that’s due to bankruptcies, these regulatory things that you mentioned. There’s also a lot of things going on with Dalilah’s Law, non-domiciled CDLs. There’s just a lot going on overall.

Really at the end of the day, what we do is focus on things we can control, partner with customers to navigate this uncertainty, and we believe we’re positioned with our service being in a great place to lead with the great opportunities and have great conversations with our customers. I hope that answers your question, Brian.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Stephanie Moore from Jefferies. Your line is live.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup3: Hi. Good morning. Thanks, everybody. Good to talk to you. I wanted to maybe talk about your 2028 targets. Obviously, when you originally gave those targets, the macro or the underlying freight environment was in a different position than it seems to be today. Maybe just talk a bit about progress towards those targets with a bit of a firmer macro or what appears to be a freight environment. Maybe talk a little bit as you think about those targets. Thanks.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Hey, Stephanie. Good morning. We have confidence in our long-term view and the targets we outlined at Investor Day. We didn’t expect a significant freight recovery in 2026 in those targets, we’re seeing some early signs of recovery before we anticipated, but we still need to see more consistent demand. We’re encouraged by the truckload exits that we mentioned earlier and three positive months of PMI reading. Obviously, the war in Iran and corresponding increases in fuel could impact inflation interest rates. We are seeing the effects of the supply side, and as we’re looking for demand to continue to inflect.

Really when I think about our business across both asset-based and asset-light, our focus is building a scalable, disciplined operation that can fully capitalize, not only on our initiatives, but also the operating leverage that we have within the business. Over the past several years, we’ve invested a lot in our network and technology productivity, remained very disciplined on pricing, as Eddie mentioned earlier. As the market improves, we expect those investments to translate into greater network density, better utilization of excess capacity, more freight per per stop, and that’s gonna allow incremental volume to flow through resources that are already in place. At Investor Day, we outlined the earnings potential.

As the market inflex in our asset-based business, we modeled about 100 basis points of non-GAAP operating ratio improvement versus 2024, with an upside of up to 280 basis points if industrial production returns to trend and housing normalizes and truckload spot rates improve. In asset light, we modeled a $10 million improvement in expedite and a $75 of net revenue per shipment per year with upside potential of up to $30 million as expedite and manufacturing recovers and truckload rates normalize. Truckload brokers, we’ve talked about for every $10 of margin per shipment expansion, it equates to $3.5 million of incremental profit to the bottom line.

As volumes inflect, we expect this incremental margin to improve, and we feel good that we’re on pace to achieve our long-term goals that we outlined at Investor Day.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ariel Rosa from Citigroup. Your line is live.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup: Hi. Good morning. The connection wasn’t great there, so I may have missed a little bit of that lecture. Seth, you’ve now been in the CEO seat for a few months. Obviously, the business isn’t new to you, but I’d love to hear your reflections after a few months in that seat and how you’re thinking about positioning things differently from how Judy was running the business. Obviously you have the long-term targets, and we understand there’s, you know, quite a lot that implies to where we currently stand. Just kind of broaden that out and talk about how you’re thinking about managing the business, and what your objectives are that might differ from your predecessor. Thanks.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Perfect. Thanks, Ari, good morning. Well, I believe in the strategy of our company and also our ability to achieve those long-term targets that we outlined at Investor Day in September. I always go back to the customer, in my customer conversations, our solutions resonate with them. We really differentiate ourselves in the marketplace as a logistics partner with assets, that’s really different from a lot of what our competition does. By finding ways to say yes to our customers, we feel that’s going to position us well for greater revenue, profit, and account retention. Really what I’ve been focused on is optimizing our sales resources, putting people in the best position to succeed, win and grow business, as well as grow these long-term relationships that we’ve had.

We continue to optimize our cost structure. We’ve also worked to improve customer experience, and that’s why I think when ArcBest View launches in May, it’s really going to be differentiated in the marketplace and allow us to give our customers the information that they’re searching for in a self-serve manner. In my first three months in the role, I really believe accelerating our strategy will drive sustained value creation for customers and shareholders. The environment, it’s just been unpredictable, really throughout the last five or six years, but I can tell you why I’m confident in the future. Our strategy’s sound. We’ve navigated this market downturn very well. We’re ready for any changes that lie ahead.

We have a tremendous amount of operating leverage in the business when the market does turn. This team focuses on things in their control, and we view these times as opportunities. We positioned ourselves for growth with all the investments we’ve made over the last five years, as well as margin expansion with the investments in the asset-based network technology. It just feels like we have so much opportunity in front of us, and we’re seeing it through strong pipeline numbers, new business, continued acceleration of our cross-selling efforts. Our tech-enabled initiatives continue to progress at a much faster clip. I’ve been really proud of the tech team and what they’ve been able to deliver for our business and our customers.

We continue to win external awards, which to me really validate the strategy and tells me about the value we’re bringing to the market is differentiated, and that’s going to allow us to win in the short term and long term. My goal is really to accelerate that progress we’ve already made. I can tell you none of this would be possible without our amazing people. Our people are the heart of our success. I spend a lot of time with our employees. I really couldn’t be more prouder of the work they do for our customers day in and day out. We feel we’re positioned to deliver on our long-term targets, deliver value for our customers, which will ultimately translate to shareholder value creation.

Operator: Your final question comes from the line of Ken Hoexter from Bank of America. Your line is live.

Ken Hoexter, Analyst, Bank of America: Hey, great. Good morning. Hey, Seth, and Matt.

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Morning.

Ken Hoexter, Analyst, Bank of America: Just want to talk about the stickiness of the dynamic freight a bit. Maybe in the past you got caught with too much and you wanted, you know, as you wanted to switch to capacity, your own freight. Did I hear you have a newer process that enables maybe more fluidity? Maybe you could talk about the thoughts on your excess capacity now and then. I guess to Stephanie, you mentioned that maybe things were picking up a bit faster. Just want to understand thoughts on the timeframe from the rising ISM to get that shipment growth and given the competitive environment. I don’t know if others are being more competitive and that’s the impact on shipments near term. Just maybe a couple things rolled up in there.

Operator: Any thoughts?

Ariel Rosa, Analyst, Citigroup2: Yeah, perfect. Thanks, Ken. I appreciate that question. I’ll respond if any one on my team has any comments, they can chime in as well. I’ll start with dynamic first. Our business is primarily core, that’s really where we spend a lot of our time as core published business that Eddie mentioned earlier. The dynamic mix is what’s changed a little bit, and that’s really because of just the growth in the quote pool. Our actual shipment count that we’re targeting is relatively consistent. It’s just the mix has changed because we have a bigger quote pool, and we can optimize our network.

What’s important to understand and I know I’ve mentioned this before, is we optimize our mix on a daily basis, and it’s based on profit maximization, based on current market prices and available capacity. As capacity starts to go down, we expect our optionality to improve. The more that we expand that quote pool, the more selective in real time we can be, and that’s what I think is really important. We mentioned at Investor Day, but since the inception of dynamic, that quote pool has grown. Our revenue per shipment has improved over 50% as that quote pool has expanded. I’ve said this in the past as well, but our peers use, you know, 3PLs to make those adjustments, but we are the 3PL.

That’s what’s important to understand, is being a 3PL with assets improves optionality for our customers. As far as excess capacity and our ability to scale, we really break that into three buckets: people, equipment, and real estate. On the people side, we’ve invested a lot in labor planning tools, and we feel like we’re positioned to have a strong service summer as well as the remainder of the year. We feel great about that. Equipment, we have one of the newest fleets on the road because we’ve been disciplined with our investments through this cycle. Then real estate, we’ve added over 800 doors to the network, with continued enhancements ongoing. We feel like we’re positioned very well.

All these optimization efforts that we talk about as we improve productivity when business volumes do inflect, we’re just gonna need to recruit less people, which is good because it allows us to say yes to our customers.

Operator: That concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to Amy Mendenhall for closing remarks.

Amy Mendenhall, Vice President, Treasury and Investor Relations, ArcBest: Just wanted to thank everyone for joining us today. We certainly appreciate your interest in ArcBest and hope everyone has a great day.

Operator: That concludes today’s meeting. You may now disconnect.