ARCBEST CORP /DE/

REPORT OF INDEPENDENTREGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

Board of Directors and Stockholders

ArcBest Corporation

Opinion on the financial statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheet of ArcBest Corporation (a Delaware corporation) and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2025, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2025, and the related notes and financial statement schedule included under Item 15(a)(2) (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2025, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2025, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2025, based on criteria established in the 2013 Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”), and our report dated February 25, 2026, expressed an unqualified opinion.

Basis for opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical audit matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Workers’ compensation and third-party casualty claims liabilities

As described further in note B to the financial statements, the Company records estimated liabilities for workers’ compensation and third-party casualty claims. The Company is self-insured up to certain limits and accrues for the claims liabilities based on the case reserve plus an estimate of loss development and incurred but not reported claims. We identified the estimation of the Company’s workers’ compensation and third-party casualty claims liability as a critical audit matter.

The principal considerations for our determination that the Company’s workers’ compensation and third-party casualty claims liability is a critical audit matter are that there is a high degree of judgment and subjectivity in management’s estimation of the severity and total costs to settle or dispose the claims.

Our audit procedures related to this critical audit matter included the following, among others:

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT****REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of ArcBest Corporation

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheet of ArcBest Corporation (the Company) as of December 31, 2024, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a)(2) (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2024, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2024, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.