Document and Entity Information	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2014	May 02, 2014
Document and Entity Information
Entity Registrant Name	ARCBEST CORP /DE/
Entity Central Index Key	0000894405
Document Type	10-Q/A
Document Period End Date	Mar. 31, 2014
Amendment Flag	true
Amendment Description	The purpose of this Amendment No. 1 to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2014 of ArcBest Corporation (the "Company"), filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 9, 2014 (the "Form 10-Q"), is solely to correct the "2013" and "2014" headings, which were transposed by the filing processor in (i) the table that sets forth the computation of basic and diluted loss per share in Note I - Earnings per Share of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I, Item 1 of the Form 10-Q and (ii) the table that sets forth the consolidated results for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 under the Results of Operations section of the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations section in Part I, Item 2 of the Form 10-Q. Other than the aforementioned, no other changes have been made to the Form 10-Q. This Amendment No. 1 to the Form 10-Q applies to the original filing date of the Form 10-Q, does not reflect events that may have occurred subsequent to the original filing date, and does not modify or update in any way disclosures made in the original Form 10-Q.
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Current Reporting Status	Yes
Entity Filer Category	Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		25,994,747
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2014
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q1