In 1923, a small local freight hauler was formed, the beginning of today’s ArcBest.
OK Transfer & Storage operated in and around Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1935, OK Transfer acquired Arkansas Motor Freight Lines and assumed its name. Arkansas Motor Freight Lines served the area from Fort Smith to St. Louis and Fort Smith to Kansas City.
The company had 10 employees, two tractors, three trailers and one pickup truck.
In 1960, ABF Freight employees at the Little Rock, Arkansas, service center contributed more than $3,100 to the Community Chest campaign in Pulaski County.
“Helping the character building agencies and the worthy organizations in one’s home community is part of being a good citizen,” the employee magazine stated. “And members of the ABF family are the finest kind of citizens always.”
Members of the 2006-2007 ABF Freight® Load Team came from locations ranging from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to Salt Lake City, Utah.
When ArcBest expanded with its purchase of Best Motor Lines, its coverage area also expanded to stretch over 6,500 franchised miles from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
Robert A. Young Jr., president of Arkansas Motor Freight Lines, a predecessor of today’s ArcBest, wanted to keep in personal contact with employees and operations throughout the network. To accomplish this, in late 1956, AMF purchased a company airplane and hired a pilot, Buell Phillips.
In September 1971, ArcBest (then known as Arkansas Best Corporation) formally dedicated its new Corporate Center at 1000 S. 21st St. in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Congressman Wilbur D. Mills gave the dedicatory address, telling ArcBest Chairman of the Board Robert A. Young Jr. that “you are imbued with a spirit that has made us what we are in the United States. The spirit of the quest bubbles over in Bob Young.”
During the era of regulation in the trucking industry, trucking companies expanded the routes they could drive by acquiring other companies. In August 1956, Arkansas Motor Freight Lines announced its intention to buy Best Motor Lines.