Seth Runser is the President of ABF Freight^® an ArcBest company and one of the nation’s largest, most trusted less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. With a deep knowledge of freight operations gained from over 17 years at the company, Seth is advancing ABF’s growth through strategic operational direction — with a commitment to delivering value to customers through innovative technology, flexible service options, a highly skilled workforce and a focus on providing superior service. 

As President of ABF Freight, Seth champions ABF’s Quality Process, promoting a commitment to excellence and a culture of safety for our people, facilities and equipment, and our customers’ freight. Under his leadership, ABF continues to be recognized as one of the safest and most secure working environments in the industry, as evidenced by being the only LTL carrier to win the American Trucking Associations (ATA) Excellence in Security award and Excellence in Claims and Loss Prevention award ten times.  

His vision for growth and dedication to serving our customers more efficiently have been a catalyst for ABF’s multi-year Facility Enhancement and Growth Roadmap. Since 2021, ABF has added 500 dock doors (and counting) and completed renovations on multiple facilities across its network of 240 service centers — adding capacity, improving employee experience and standardizing renovations and sustainability updates to meet customer needs into the future.  

Seth is also a key enabler in advancing ABF’s sustainability initiatives, prioritizing the environmental efficiency of our equipment, operations and service centers. This includes ABF’s ongoing investment in maintaining a modern fleet that improves fuel economy and reduces our GHG emissions, and commitment to disclosing Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions, as well as initiatives such as City Route Optimization (CRO) technology and testing electric straight trucks, yard tractors and forklifts.  

Seth joined ABF in 2007 as a Management Trainee and has gained extensive knowledge working in various roles across the country — including serving as Operations Supervisor, Regional Training Specialist, Service Center Manager and Regional Vice President of Operations. In 2019, he relocated to the corporate headquarters in Fort Smith, where he served as Vice President of Linehaul Operations before being named Chief Operating Officer in February 2021 and ABF President in July 2021. 

Seth is an Arkansas Trucking Association board member, an American Trucking Associations Highway Safety Policy Committee Member and a member of the 2024 BNSF Railway Customer Advisory Board. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Kent State University. 

Outside the Organization

American Trucking Associations 
Highway Safety Policy Committee Member 

BNSF Railway 
2024 Customer Advisory Board

Arkansas Trucking Association  
Board Member

Awards and Accolades 

Personal awards and accolades
2021 Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Forty Under 40 winner 
2014 President’s Quality Award winner 
2012 and 2016 President’s Club winner

ABF awards and accolades
The only ten-time winner of the American Trucking Associations’ Excellence in Security Award 
The only ten-time winner of the American Trucking Associations’ Excellence in Claims & Loss Prevention Award 
The only seven-time winner of the American Trucking Associations’ President’s Trophy

In the Media

ABF Freight at 100: Investments in Workforce, M&A Pay Off 
Good Things – Arkansas Trucking Report 
Forty Under 40: Seth Runser 
City Highlights Investment Made by ABF Freight System’s New Facility