ABF Freight Category: Trucking Company Official Site: arcb.com Wikipedia: ABF Freight System Address: Fort Smith, Arkansas Description: A trucking company and subsidiary of ArcBest. Page Sections: History · Article Index

History

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's ABF Freight System page on 1 July 2023, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

ABF Freight System, Inc., a subsidiary of ArcBest Corporation, is an American national less-than-truckload (LTL) freight carrier based in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The company was founded Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1923 as OK Transfer, the name it used until 1935 when it acquired Arkansas Motor Freight (AMF) and took that company's name. Until 1935, it had operated only within Arkansas but its acquisition of Motor Express made it an interstate carrier.

Former lawyer Robert A. Young, Jr. purchased Arkansas Motor Freight Lines, Inc. in 1951. The company name changed again when, after Young acquired Dallas, Texas-based Best Motor Freight in 1956, he merged the two companies in 1957 as Arkansas-Best Freight System Inc.

Arkansas-Best again expanded in 1961 when it acquired Healzer Cartage of Kansas City, Missouri for US$500,000. Healzer had been founded in 1930 in Hutchinson, Kansas and at the time of acquisition reported nearly US$3 million annually in revenue. It was expected to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arkansas-Best. At the time, Arkansas-Best estimated it would have revenues of approximately US$18 million for 1961. Arkansas-Best also acquired Delta Motor Line expanding its reach to New Orleans.

In 1966, Young founded Arkansas Best Corporation as a holding company for Arkansas-Best to facilitate diversification.

In 1968, after a decade of expansion by acquiring route authorities in the southern, midwestern, and eastern US, Arkansas-Best acquired Fast Freight Co. which extended their network into New York. This was followed the next year by the acquisition of Krema Truck Lines in the Chicago area.

In the 1970s, Arkansas-Best developed into a nationwide carrier through acquisitions of southeastern US carrier Youngblood Truck Lines in 1971 and all or part of H.A. Day Truck Line, Associated Transport, Western Gillette, and a portion of the routes of Great Lakes Express Co. which expanded its midwestern operations. The subsequent acquisition of the operating rights of Akers Motor Lines along U.S. Route 1 connected Arkansas-Best's New England and southeastern operations. Major expansion came with the carrier's purchase of Navajo Freight Lines in 1979. This pushed Arkansas-Best's operations all the way to California and increased its rank from the 25th largest interstate motor freight carrier in the US to ninth.

Arkansas-Best changed its name to ABF Freight System Inc. in 1980 and, by 1981, was the eighth largest trucking company in the US operating 106 terminals. It acquired East Texas Motor Freight Lines, a subsidiary of Bright Industries Inc., in 1982, a move which added 44 new terminal cities increasing ABF's reach to a total of 158, and by 1985 ABF was the sixth largest carrier in the US.

ABF created ABF U-Pack Moving as a subsidiary in 1997 to provide household moving services.

Parent company, Arkansas Best Corporation, was renamed ArcBest Corporation in 2014.

Date	Article	Details
3 January 2010	Moving Service Provider Releases Moving Trends Annual Long Distance Moving Trends Report shows more people are moving South. ABF UPack Moving reports more leaving Northeast states while Texas is a hot spot, the next best thing to paradise.	Press Release ( PDF) Publisher: ABF U-Pack Moving via PRWeb Byline: Kay Lynn Clay Dateline: Fort Smith, Arkansas
24 March 2023	Notice of Lodging of Proposed Consent Decree Under the Clean Water Act On March 20 the Department of Justice lodged a proposed Consent Decree with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in the lawsuit entitled United States, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, State of Maryland, and State of Nevada v. ABF Freight System, Inc., Civil Action No. 2:23-cv-02039-PKH.	Federal Register Notice (text) Department: Department of Justice Byline: Thomas Carroll Topic: ABF Freight System