Arkansas Trucking Association Names Heath Arnold Safety Professional of the Year and Honors ABF with Fleet Safety Award
Heath Arnold, Director of Safety and Compliance at ABF Freight®, an ArcBest company, was named the Arkansas Trucking Association’s (ATA) 2023 Safety Professional of the Year at the 2024 ATA Conference & Vendor Showcase in Rogers, Arkansas, held on May 10th. This prestigious honor recognizes Heath’s commitment to safety and his exceptional ability to identify and solve critical safety-related matters.
ABF Freight also won the 2023 Corporate Fleet Safety Award in the LTL Large Carrier division, recognizing the company as one of the safest fleets operating across the state. This reflects the diligent work of our Safety and Security Teams, which maintain safe and secure environments across our campuses, service centers and operations.
Our Safety Team focuses on training and compliance in several key areas, including DOT regulations, HOS laws, OSHA requirements and hazmat. It also monitors and implements safety protocols and procedures for service center activity, equipment inspections, injury and accident investigations, road tests and driver coaching. Our Security Team focuses on providing a secure work environment across our network of 240 service centers, protecting our customers’ shipments and company assets, and protecting our customers and company against fraud. Through these teams’ efforts, we promote safety company-wide and help set industry standards for safety.
Heath Arnold — A Career of Safety Excellence
With over 20 years of experience, Heath leads ABF’s Safety, Safety Innovation and Technology, Hazardous Materials, and Safety and Security Administration teams. He also oversees ABF’s 12 regional safety and security managers, ensuring they have the training and tools to monitor and implement protocols and procedures at our service centers.
Heath joined the company in 2002 and has served in various leadership roles, including Senior Manager of Safety and Director of Safety and Security, before moving into his current role in 2023. Some of Heath’s most notable achievements include:
Increasing Driver Safety Support
Heath worked closely with executive leadership to strategically realign ABF’s safety and security team to better support the company’s needs. This change led to the formation of ABF’s Safety Communications and Support team, which provides drivers and service center employees a single support system to contact during regular business hours, overnight and on the weekends. Since its implementation, ABF’s driver delay times have decreased, resulting in our customers’ freight moving more quickly and securely.
Enhancing Training and Driver Recognition Programs
As a safety professional, Heath aims to ensure our drivers and dock workers have the best training in the industry — so we’re positioned to protect the motoring public and America’s roadways. He’s been instrumental in developing and launching several initiatives and programs that promote safety across the organization — including recognizing ABF drivers for achieving safe driving milestones and organizing internal competitions that allow our drivers and dock workers to hone their skills. Under his leadership, the company also upgraded training that exceeds OSHA requirements on forklift operation and hazmat handling.
Investing in Safety Technology
With the goal of safer, more efficient operations, Heath was heavily involved in digitizing our driver logging system from paper to electronic logging devices. Additionally, he leads the Safety Innovation and Technology team, in close collaboration with ArcBest Technologies, on our Smart Trailer Initiative, which involves researching technology such as trailer tracking, door sensors and other intelligent features that can help increase the overall safety of the ABF fleet.
Congratulations, Heath Arnold and the ABF Fleet!
Congratulations, Heath, on this exciting career achievement, and to ABF Freight for maintaining one of the safest fleets on the road. We appreciate how you and our ABF teams prioritize safety to help keep our facilities, our people and America’s roadways safe and secure.