Arkansas Best Corporation Announces Its First Quarter 2011 Earnings Conference Call

Arkansas Best Corporation will announce its first quarter 2011 results, prior to the opening of the market, on Monday, April 25, 2011. A conference call with company executives will be held that day at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss these results. Interested parties are invited to listen by calling (800) 772-0358.

Following the call, a recorded playback will be available through the end of the day on May 25, 2011. To listen to the playback, dial (800) 633-8284 or (402) 977-9140 (for international callers). The conference ID for the playback is 21518748.

This call is being webcast and can be accessed live on Arkansas Best’s website at arkbest.com. A replay of the webcast can be accessed at Arkansas Best’s website through May 25.

ABF Global Expansion Reaches Into the Dominican Republic With Door Delivery

Continuing its global expansion, ABF is providing seamless, single-contact door delivery for customers shipping to the Dominican Republic. ABF expanded its Caribbean coverage in response to increased demand for shipping solutions from customers taking advantage of opportunities created by the United States-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, known informally as CAFTA. The Dominican Republic also serves as a staging ground for rebuilding efforts in neighboring Haiti.

"As shippers look to ABF for innovative, global supply chain solutions, we will continue to expand our global reach and develop new ways to help customers excel in a global economy," said Roy Slagle, ABF senior vice president of sales and marketing. "Customers appreciate the predictability and reliability ABF brings to their global supply chains by providing a boutique of comprehensive, end-to-end, single-source solutions."

The CAFTA agreement eliminates barriers to trade and investment among its seven signatories: Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the United States. The agreement opens new commercial opportunities for U.S. companies and U.S. operations of foreign companies with these Central American and Caribbean countries. CAFTA also enhances those countries' access to the U.S. markets and establishes common regulatory and environmental standards.

Arkansas Best Included on Fortune's 2009 List of World's Most Admired Companies

Arkansas Best Corporation appears on the 2009 list of the World's Most Admired Companies, published by Fortune magazine. Arkansas Best is the highest ranking less-than-truckload motor carrier among the Most Admired Trucking companies. The full list and related stories appear in the March 16th issue of Fortune, available on newsstands Monday, March 9th.

"Arkansas Best is proud to be recognized with this prestigious honor," said Arkansas Best President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Davidson. "Our company's reputation has been earned by the consistent performance of employees throughout North America, who bring value to the supply chains of our customers. So it is particularly rewarding to see their efforts recognized as exceptional. In addition, our customers will be pleased to learn that their supply chain partner has earned the admiration of the world's best business leaders."

Fortune's survey partners at Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, started with some 1,400 companies: the Fortune 1,000--the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue; non-U.S. companies in Fortune's Global 500 database with revenues of $10 billion or more; and the top foreign companies operating in the U.S. They then sorted the companies by industry and selected the 15 largest for each international industry and the 10 largest for each U.S. industry.

The survey covers 64 industries: 25 international industries and 39 primarily U.S.-market industries. To create the 64 industry lists, Hay Group asked executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value to social responsibility. This year only the best are listed: A company's score must rank in the top half of its industry survey.