What ArcBest Corporation told the SEC could break it.

Diesel fuel is one of ArcBest's largest operating costs through ABF Freight's less-than-truckload fleet, and it explicitly states it has not historically engaged in fuel-price hedging and had no fuel-hedging agreements outstanding at year-end 2025 or 2024. While fuel surcharges recover much of fuel-cost movement, unhedged diesel exposure leaves margins sensitive to crude/diesel price swings, refining capacity and geopolitical disruptions. A core petroleum-commodity input dependence with no hedging mitigation.

“We have not historically engaged in a program for fuel price hedging and did not have any fuel hedging agreements outstanding at December 31, 2025 and 2024.”

Unlike most large LTL carriers, ABF Freight (≈66% of ArcBest revenue) is unionized: its workforce is covered by the 2023 ABF National Master Freight Agreement (NMFA) with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), in effect through June 30, 2028. This concentrates labor-cost and work-stoppage risk in a single collective bargaining agreement — adverse renewal terms, a strike, or a failed negotiation in 2028 could disrupt operations and raise costs. ArcBest also contributes to multiemployer pension plans, a portion of whose contributions fund benefits for individuals who have never been employed by ABF Freight ('orphan' liability) — an exposure heightened across the unionized-LTL sector after Yellow Corp's 2023 collapse. A distinctive, sector-specific union-labor and pension exposure.

“covered under the 2023 ABF NMFA, the collective bargaining agreement with the IBT, which will remain in effect through June 30, 2028.”