FORT SMITH, Ark. - ABF Freight®, an ArcBestsm company (Nasdaq: ARCB), announces that four of its 248 terminals have earned the prestigious President’s Quality Award for their achievements in 2015: Fayetteville, Arkansas; St. Cloud and Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “Every ABF Freight terminal employs the ABF Freight Quality Process to ensure our customers’ goods move through our network as efficiently and safely as possible,” said ABF Freight President Tim Thorne. “For decades, strict adherence to the Quality Process has set ABF Freight apart in the industry, and these high-achieving terminals are the best of the best — setting the pace for service excellence.” Each terminal is presented with a President’s Quality Award trophy and earns a listing at the company’s Fort Smith General Office. Thorne, the ABF Freight Quality Implementation Committee, local employees and special guests attend the award ceremonies. All ABF Freight terminals undergo extensive evaluations, including a nomination process, a quality awareness survey and an on-site validation audit by the ABF Freight Quality Implementation Committee. The process gauges customer satisfaction, resource management, damage/loss prevention and other performance indicators for the previous year. The ABF Freight Quality Process uses a variety of tools, including a five-step problem elimination process: 1) define the problem; 2) fix the problem; 3) determine the root cause; 4) take corrective action; 5) evaluate and follow up. Quality seminars, job-skills training, focus groups and designated quality teams have ensured that quality at ABF Freight is a process, not merely a program. Based on principles developed by the late Philip Crosby, the process emphasizes ongoing prevention rather than end-of-line inspection. Identifying and eliminating the causes of problems improves service and requires no additional expenditure.