ArcBest President Seth Runser will take on the role of CEO for the company at the start of 2026.
Runser’s career arc at the company began as a management trainee and recently included serving as president of ABF Freight from 2021 through 2024. He will take over from longtime CEO Judy McReynolds.
During his previous 18 years with the company, Runser has displayed leadership skills in advancing the company’s customer-centric approach and fostering innovation, according to former lead independent director Steven Spinner, who retired from the company’s board Oct. 31.
In September, ArcBest held its first Investor Day in a decade, where it highlighted its competitive edges. That includes its employee turnover rate, which it says is approximately 30% lower than other companies. The business also discussed the upcoming launch of its ArcBest View customer service platform for quoting, booking and visibility.
Runser credits ArcBest’s strengths to its focus on customers and employees, guided by the company’s strategic pillars in accelerating profitable growth, increasing efficiency and driving innovation.
“What I love about our team is we're super agile,” Runser told Trucking Dive in a video interview Dec. 11. “We're able to shift based off of customer demand and preference.”
Read excerpts from the interview below and stay tuned for more commentary from this interview as part of upcoming Trucking Dive coverage.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
Trucking Dive: What are your priorities in 2026?
SETH RUNSER: When I think about my top priorities, it's really our people, our customers and providing that premium experience for our customers. And I think ultimately that's going to translate to shareholder value. We talk a lot about our three strategic pillars around growth, efficiency and innovation.
When messaging to your workers, what does that look like? It's been a prolonged, deep recession. What are the most important things that you're trying to get out there for 2026?
We always talk to our team. It's really about taking care of things that you can control. So we can't control the economy, the freight economy. We can't control everything that's going on in the news. So we’re really focused around how can you profitably grow our company? And that comes from partnering with customers and providing a great experience.
I'm constantly traveling, being in front of our people to make sure that they're all hearing that they are important. What they do matters, and every role contributes to achieving those long-term targets.
We try to communicate as much as possible, having 14,000 employees. We do annual surveys, videos and visits. I was with the team, actually, yesterday in North Carolina doing a charity event. We were packing Christmas boxes with [a] customer we've had for 17 years. And it just speaks to that longstanding relationship that we have. That's just the type of company we are. And I think our people know me because I've been here a while. So I think it's easier to message when you have that trust already built with such a large portion of your team.
You’ve mentioned how you're continuously looking ahead when it comes to technology. How do you evaluate what opportunities are out there and how to implement those, given that there are so many options available?
What we try to do with any technology investment is it comes back to our strategy. There's no shortage of good ideas. What we're trying to look for are the great ones. The ones that are going to differentiate us from the competition or provide a value add to our customers. We meet as a leadership team. We evaluate a long list of opportunities, and we evaluate where does it fit in strategically for us. Is it worth the investment? And we're always thinking short-term and long-term.
[ArcBest] View, we started building years ago, and we're just getting to the point where we can roll that out. So if you're not thinking long-term, making those investments today for a better future, you're really missing the boat. So that's why we constantly are looking at what are we doing, not just next year, but also three to five years from now. And that's why I love that we did that Investor Day because we kind of outlined, ‘Hey, this is where we see ourselves in 2028 no matter what's going on through the quarter. You know, this is ultimately where we want to end up,’ and that's really how we operate the company, why we've been around for so long.
Regarding the transition with McReynolds, what lessons or advice are top of mind for you as you take on the new role?
We as a company focus heavily on succession planning. We spend a lot of time and investments on our people making sure they're ready for the next role. We say internally it's like handing the baton off. You want to make sure you don't drop the baton.
So we have a robust talent management plan. A lot of companies will say that, but we really have an intentional effort around developing our people. And I'm no different. I started with the company right out of college frontline, you know, no freight experience whatsoever. Now I'll be moving into the CEO role, and it's because of the development of past leaders who took time to either mentor me or spend time with me, and that's what Judy and I have done. We've been working on this transition for almost two years now, and I really appreciate it.
My biggest takeaway from spending time with Judy over these last few years is continue to invest in the culture and our people.
Seth Runser
Incoming ArcBest CEO
[Judy has been] making such an intentional effort to develop myself and the rest of the leadership team really to be ready for her retirement. You really don't see that in a lot of big public companies anymore, where the leader is going to help make sure that we transition around. So my biggest takeaway from spending time with Judy over these last few years is continue to invest in the culture and our people.
The other key takeaway, and something that I'm very passionate about, is always be a customer-led organization. We are as a company, but I prioritize spending time with customers. I try to get out, listen to our customers, listen to our people. Because, ultimately, if you take care of your team, listen to your customers, you innovate around those solutions that people want, we'll stand the test of time. Make sure you take care of your people. Make sure you're always listening to your customers — because that's what's going to make us be around for another 100 years.
Looking at 2026, where do you see the biggest opportunities for ArcBest?
We really think it comes down to those three strategic pillars that I mentioned earlier. We've seen our pipeline continue to grow. Managed solutions continues to grow double digits, and that's because of all the complexity that our customers are seeing. So [I] feel good about that.
On the efficiency front, I really feel like we're just getting started. Asset-based on efficiency improved. Asset-light improved over 33% in the third quarter, so [I] feel great from an efficiency standpoint. And innovation, we have a robust roadmap that we outlined, you know, just kind of high-level things at Investor Day, but we feel really good that we got a robust pipeline of future projects that we're going to be working on.
And we've also added external talent. Mac Pinkerton officially starts in about three weeks, and he led C.H. Robinson’s North American Service Transportation. So to get the president, who led the largest brokerage in the United States, to come over to our company and help us strategically and tactically improve those three pillars I mentioned, I think it's going to be really exciting.
