ABF Freight Announces Negotiations Start Date with Teamsters

FORT SMITH, Ark., Nov. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ABF Freight^®, the less-than-truckload carrier operated by ArcBest^® (Nasdaq: ARCB), announced that ABF and the Teamsters National Freight Industry Negotiating Committee (TNFINC) have agreed to exchange initial proposals on December 18 and 19, 2017, and begin negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement the week of January 7, 2018.

TNFINC is the negotiating committee of local unions that are affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. ABF Freight is the largest subsidiary of ArcBest and was founded in 1923.

"We look forward to working with the Teamsters' leadership to reach a new collective bargaining agreement that appropriately reflects the competitive environment in which we operate," said ABF Freight President Tim Thorne.

The current collective bargaining agreement, known as the ABF National Master Freight Agreement, expires at midnight on March 31, 2018. It covers approximately 8,600 ABF Freight Teamster employees in various locations across the United States, including road drivers, city drivers, dockworkers, mechanics and clerical personnel.

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Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements and information in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "foresee," "intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "project," "scheduled," "should," "would," and similar expressions and the negatives of such terms are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's beliefs, assumptions, and expectations based on currently available information, are not guarantees of future performance, and involve certain risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control). Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, we cannot provide assurance that our expectations will prove to be correct. Actual outcomes and results could materially differ from what is expressed, implied, or forecasted in these statements due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to: a failure of our information systems, including disruptions or failures of services essential to our operations or upon which our information technology platforms rely, data breach, and/or cybersecurity incidents; not achieving some or all of the expected financial and operating benefits of our corporate restructuring or incurring additional costs or operational inefficiencies as a result of the restructuring; relationships with employees, including unions, and our ability to attract and retain employees; unfavorable terms of, or the inability to reach agreement on, future collective bargaining agreements or a workforce stoppage by our employees covered under ABF Freight's collective bargaining agreement; competitive initiatives and pricing pressures; union and nonunion employee wages and benefits, including changes in required contributions to multiemployer plans; the cost, integration, and performance of any recent or future acquisitions; general economic conditions and related shifts in market demand that impact the performance and needs of industries we serve and/or limit our customers' access to adequate financial resources; governmental regulations; environmental laws and regulations, including emissions-control regulations; the loss or reduction of business from large customers; litigation or claims asserted against us; the cost, timing, and performance of growth initiatives; the loss of key employees or the inability to execute succession planning strategies; availability and cost of reliable third-party services; our ability to secure independent owner operators and/or operational or regulatory issues related to our use of their services; default on covenants of financing arrangements and the availability and terms of future financing arrangements; timing and amount of capital expenditures; self-insurance claims and insurance premium costs; availability of fuel, the effect of volatility in fuel prices and the associated changes in fuel surcharges on securing increases in base freight rates, and the inability to collect fuel surcharges; increased prices for and decreased availability of new revenue equipment, decreases in value of used revenue equipment, and higher costs of equipment-related operating expenses such as maintenance and fuel and related taxes; potential impairment of goodwill and intangible assets; maintaining our intellectual property rights, brand, and corporate reputation; seasonal fluctuations and adverse weather conditions; regulatory, economic, and other risks arising from our international business;  antiterrorism and safety measures; and other financial, operational, and legal risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in ArcBest's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our projected results, please see our filings with SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE ArcBest Corporation

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