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need your help executing. That’s what I
think builds trust is there’s no hidden AT-A-GLANCE
agenda around any of that. We’re really
open and honest with our strategies.” SETH RUNSER
He’s preparing for the next quar-
terly team report to continue commu- FAMILY: Seth has been married to his wife Brooke for seven
nication. In the coming days, he’ll be years, and they have two children: Dylan, 4, and Addison, 13
heading to service centers in Memphis
and Nashville to film a video explain- months.
ing the financials and upcoming plans. FIRST TECHNOLOGY: The original Nintendo and playing
He’ll also interview Judy McReynolds,
his boss, mentor and the chairman, the Oregon Trail on a Macintosh at school
president and CEO of ArcBest. FIRST JOB: “I started actually working at Target pushing carts
He attempts to visit 30–50
service centers each year. The visit in high school. After football practice, we got done, brought all
to Tennessee is just days after the the carts in for the night, and then went back home to do it all
I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River again the next day.”
reopened after three months of
repairs for a critical fracture that was FAVORITE MUSIC: “I listen to everything from Kenny
discovered in May. “Because Memphis Chesney and country to hard rock, like Breaking Benjamin, college-
is a major hub for us and Little Rock like music. It just depends on what I’m doing. For kids, it’s Disney
is a distribution center, that was really and Cocomelon. If it’s working out, that’s more of the hard rock,
the main line between the Southeast and then if I’m just relaxing, it’s country.”
connecting to Little Rock. Obviously,
we could still go around it on I-55, ON THE WEEKENDS: He can be found spending time with
but you used to be able to go from his kids, playing in
Memphis to Little Rock, drop off, come
back and do it again. You’d double the pool, traveling
turn, so we haven’t been able to double with his family
turn since [the closure]. Getting
that back online improves how much
freight we can move efficiently; it
doubles it overnight.”

GOOD ADVICE The best advice he’s
Relocating almost a dozen times been given should serve
makes it hard to settle into a com- him in any sphere from
munity. Volunteering and organizing advocating for the industry
haven’t fit into his career and lifestyle with a board of Arkansas’
until now. On August 25, Runser steps most prominent executives
into his first experience on a board of to keeping peace at home
directors. He will replace Thorne on or making friends in a new
Arkansas Trucking Association’s board. town post-pandemic.
“What I’m excited about is just “I think the biggest
the amount of experience that’s on the piece of advice is communicate with He heard good things were happen-
board. When you look at some of the people. That’s just absolutely key.” ing at ABF Freight at a bar, post bach-
names and titles of the people that are He recalls a grade school game of elor party in 2007. Runser followed that
on there, I’m excited about the collabo- telephone when a whispered message message for over 13 years, across state
ration … hearing what truckload carri- gets distorted beyond recognition as it borders, with a team he trusts. It’s still
ers are going through versus what we’re gets passed to secondary and tertiary loud and clear. No distortion, to the
going through, I’m sure it’s some of the audiences. “I think about not only how end of the telephone line, whether he
same challenges, but unique. How do to communicate, but how to get it to whispers, shouts or just lets the num-
we work together to solve those types every level of the organization with the bers tell the story: Good things are hap-
of things?” same message across the board.” pening here. ATR

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