transportation specialist

truck driver

order picker

diesel mechanic

driver

Ruan

Ruan is great company to work for. I was driver and I got paid well for what I did and I had no problems with the management. Could they run things better? Perhaps, but so could any company, but overall their a good company to work for IF you never incur a problem like I did.

I was injured in an accident where the other driver was drunk and 100% at fault, and the injury I sustained caused me to lose my job. Come to find out Ruan could care less about their employees in these sort of situations! How's that? Here's the dirty little secret: THEY DON'T CARRY UNINSURED/UNDERINSURED MOTORISTS PROTECTION ON THEIR TRUCKS FOR THEIR DRIVERS! This meant that I could not seek compensation through their insurance for my financial hardship due to not being able to find work in a different field, and not getting compensated for future medical bills for my injury, not getting compensated for continual pain that causes me to lose sleep, and not being able do certain activities like lifting, or sports activities I was involved with. And now I have very little retirement money left because I had to use it to live on.

Mind you, not carrying uninsured/underinsured coverage is optional and legal!! So Ruan has the right to do that, but their knowingly screwing any employee who should get hurt due to the negligence of another person. So the only money your going to collect in a situation where the other party is at fault is workers compensation, and in my case that was less the half my annual pay and that is all I will ever get because Ruan doesn't think enough of their employees to protect them with uninsured/underinsured motorist protection.

I would recommend anyone wanting to work for Ruan as a driver to seriously consider the financial risk you may suffer should you be in a not a fault accident and are injured to the point of not being able to return to work either at Ruan or as a truck driver period. I wish I knew of that risk before I started with them, they should be required by law to make that fact known to potential drivers so they can make an intelligent decision as to whether or not to sign on, I know I would not had worked for them knowing they lacked that coverage.

Long hard hours. Always behind in daily work due to being short staffed year round. (Many departments faced the same problem).
 
Extremely high work demand and little communication between departments which makes Ruan a stressful place to work. There is little to no recognition on job performance and lousy raises. Extra work was always pushed onto my department from other team Managers creating more work on our already short staffed department. 

Cannot seem to keep employees longer then 1 or 2 years due to work conditions, this was all positions and not just corporate employees. Most find new companies due to the work conditions. Ruan let many employees go for small incidents in the short time i was there. 

 Takes many months before they fill empty position's. There was a hiring freeze for months after my department lost several coworkers, Managment did not care we were doing 4x the work and always 3 to 10 days behind in daily work creating very upset customers. I could no longer work there due to the high level of stress created by these conditions and found a new job. I was there 2 years and my department was always short staffed. 

 Very little documentations on current software being used. They tend to place an entire server and software maintenance on one person, when that person leaves the company so does the knowledge of an entire system because documentation is never required and other employees where not trained or were left with little to no quality documentation.

  Ruan does serve Christmas dinner to Corporate employees, and each employee does receive a check once a year. It is not a bonus but more like profit sharing. The amount you recieve is based on your position and salary. Not enough to compensate for the demanding work environment. 

 I do not recommend this company due to all that is mentioned. I would normally say this was just my experience, but I watched many coworkers leave the company for the same reasons I listed.

I'm been with Ruan for over eight years, and in those eight years the terminals has been through 3 managers, and numberous dispatchers. The old adage here the keys and if you back it back in one piece you have a job.  Where the terminal manager or dispatcher tell you about the position is very LITTLE, and generally assume it will be double the work  that they tell you.   Also Ruan is really BIG on safety, and harp on it all the time, but there no support and backing to the empty words,  The terminal manager would rather toss you under the truck than take a stand and support his drivers.  I have ask my terminal manger if "He had a minute to talk" and his reply was "No not really"   The discipline is all over the board, if you put a scratch on a truck or trailer, you may get a 6 month to year probation, but, if you deliver the wrong product to a customer or damage customer equipment or property and costing them thousands of dollars, you will still have a job, and maybe get a wrist slap. Also you can NEVER get a straight answer on a question, it generally "I don't know", or" I'll get back to you", good luck on the latter, because it won't happen,  you have to stay on them until you get the answer, maybe even then you will still get the runaround, "I'm still checking into yet"  Ruan has burnt the Des Moines area driver pool so bad over the years that now they have to go outside of the Metro area and offer hiring bonus for you to work for them,  

Closing,  If you want a job that you need to watch your back,  treated like a 2 year old, and made to feel unimportant, and dispose as easy a bag of trash, deal with people who have never driven a truck or what it takes to get the job done, Ruan is the place for you.  

 Drivers have a little bit of dignity for yourselves and find somewhere else to driver for,  You are professionals who are in high demand right now, so you can be picky and can choose for who you drive for.

So be safe, and good luck on your adventures

Advancement opportunities are there but you have to go above and beyond and make sure it is known you want to advance. After that the timing has to be right. Some locations there may not be a position to advance to and in order to advance you may need to relocate. 

Being a part of an outlying location much of your hard work will go unnoticed by the upper echelon especially if you don't have issues that are brought to their attention. Outstanding performance can kind of get lost behind the problems if you know what I mean.

Ruan also could have some better guidance or road maps for those internal employees that express that they would like to grow rather than having them scour the internal job postings waiting to apply for something they'd like and in the end be told its too big of a step or something they aren't ready for.

For a driver most of the operations are servicing a single customer and have a lot of driver unload work. If you are looking to just do no touch drop and hooks you may want to look somewhere other than Ruan. If you want consistency and don't mind doing physical work you may find it a good rewarding place to work albeit the customer dictated schedules may be less than ideal depending which customer your location services.

The structure is like a bunch of smaller entities or operations reporting to a larger power. At times even though you may share the same building with another operation and work for the same company there can be no cohesiveness between them. Teamwork between operations can be nonexistent even at the cost of having to utilize external assets to get the job done.

Overall though good privately held company ran by good people that has some quirks but what company doesn't.

I've worked for Ruan Transportation out of Fort Wayne Indiana delivering automotive batteries for Johnson Controls for 5 years and enjoyed working for them. The only reason I had to leave was due to a lay off which was due to a drunk driver running a stop sign and the ensuing crash injured my back which prevents me from driving a big truck ever again.

Their benefits package was fantastic, never had any problems on any of their benefits; of course it helped that I was in the insurance and financial world for 25 years, so picking out the right stuff was the reason for my success with their benefits.

Typical day started on Sunday late afternoon and drove till I got to my next day's appointment for 7 or 8am on Monday morning, then drove from town to town delivering batteries to customer retail stores. Sometimes I would get back Monday night but mostly Tuesday night, then back out Wednesday and back on Thursday sometimes Friday night. We usually had part of Friday and all Saturday and part of Sunday off.

All my co-workers were great to be around with as were the staff and management.

Truck driving is never really enjoyable...at least for me, but the best part was the pay, and at least with this company I got home every other day plus most of the weekend. The most difficult part of the job was sometimes having to wait at Johnson Controls for them to finish your battery delivery so you could get on the road.

Ruan has a dedicated account right in the city I live in. Great pay, Home time, everything I was looking for. I applied, took the driving test, backing test, drug screen and physical. Basically jumped through all the hoops and got approved....and that's when things went sideways.
The day I was delivering the last load for my soon to be former employer, a  Ruan manager called me up and asked if I had hit a car in their parking lot after my driving test with my personal car. I told him of course not. he then told me they had a video that showed otherwise.... essentially accusing me of a hit and run and demanding to see my car even though he had no authority to do so.
I was 1000 miles from home so I contacted a friend that left work early and went to my house to see if there was damage to my vehicle...and there was none.
He drove my car to the Ruan terminal for the managers to inspect.
There was no video of me smashing into another car...I was purposely misled and after proving my innocence there was no apology from anyone. Obviously I withdrew from the position.
I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from working at Ruan. There are many that have great things to say about them....just know that if someone claims 2 days after the fact that you hit their car, the manager in Faribault MN will, without any proof whatsoever, single out his one of his driver's rather than back them up. His behavior was an abject disgrace.

I started with RUAN Logistics 3 1/2 years ago on a relatively new account hauling milk. The pay is great but that's about where the upside ends. 4 Terminal Managers, 3 Assistant TM's, 4 or more Transportation Supervisors, 3 Dispatchers, 2 Load Planners, 2 Shop Foremen, 6 or more Driver Trainers and countless drivers later I would say the revolving door has been broken in nicely. This place is a joke! RUAN has their collective heads up their rearends and the management on site is here for themselves and their close knit group of 'buddies'. If you don't conform you end up leaving and if you slip up and you're on their bad side you're quickly fired but, if you're on their good, well, then the rules don't matter and you're safe. We had a driver once total a truck and he kept his job while a driver dropped an empty trailer and he got fired. We have the worst equipment in the company as far as trailers go and the tractors where new are the slowest in the fleet and are not maintained real well. What we have at this terminal is 4 groups trying to be the head of the operation and nothing is getting done and the drivers just keep leaving. I've come to the point where I don't even bother learning new drivers names because it just takes too much effort on my part when they quit 2 weeks to 2 months later.

I started driving for RUAN in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.

Here are some good examples of my average weekly gross.
2210 miles a week $1481.
2300 miles a week $1541.
2520 miles a week $1688.
2690 miles a week $1802.

This is what my year end gross has been.
2nd year $77K 2021.
3rd year $79K 2022.
4th year $82K 2023.
5th year $79K 2024.

The weekend is what pays.

$0.20 more ALL weekend.
Get 800 to 1100 miles.
Saturday and Sunday.

Home 2 days STRAIGHT!
Off Tue-Wed or Wed-Thu.
Out 5 days, regional OTR.
WI, IL, IN, OH, MI.

Also offer Monday-Friday.
Doesn't pay $0.20 premium.

At this division of RUAN...
Job is NOT complicated.
Hook van or chilled at DC.
Drive 1-5 hrs. to next stop.
Most stops easy to find.
Many stops near E-way!
Drop load, hook empty.
Return to DC for next load.
Freight will NEVER end.
ALWAYS moving.
Live loading minimized.
Mostly pre-loaded trailers.
800 trailers on rotation.
THIS network is solid.

Decent for my first job.
Nearly 100% no touch.
Just sit back and drive.

An EQUAL PAY job.

NEW trucks 2023, 2024, 2025.
All AUTOMATICS, no manuals.

Health & Dental...
Several plans to pick from.
Some cost less than others.
I picked mid-range plans.

401K with company match.


At least where I was dispatched from it was since there is the occasional slow season for about a month ½ during the beginning of the year.

Worked with Tankers hauling liquid sugars and oil based liquid bulk, regional and local routes, mainly local but there were occasional runs to the near by states like NV or AZ.

Based in Los Angeles it was a very comfortable place to walk into with management and office personnel, equipment like the tractors and tanks were kept in good shape, though it hurts the yard having only one mechanic to attend to 10+ tractors, it can be overwhelming at times. 

No OT here, all straight time and they will start you off at $19/hour, they will have work for you and if it becomes too slow you have the option of working for other work the company has in other locations, but working with Vans 53' so you can complete your desired amount of hours.

They will train you if you haven't ever worked with tanks and PTO pumps to push out product and into costumers cilos, tanks will be loaded for you and be place where you can just back into them or you might be hooked to a tractor and ready to go, overall is a good place to be in.

Management is good for how short handed they always are. They listen and accomodate drivers well. The drivers complain about low pay for the job (battery deliveries to walmarts) and some are grossing almost 80,000 a year. 

There is never a shortage of loads to take. The harder you run, the more money you'll make. 

The equipment (terminal 125) is 2013 Internation Prostar single bunks with EPU (battery pack apu), beefy power inverters, and a t.v. antenna hookup. They maintain their equipment well and take care of you if you have a breakdown.

Its mon-fri work. With some weekend work. Usually if you time your loads right, you can leave on sunday (so you arrive at your first stop on monday morning) and get back early Friday. If you work saturday, they pay an additional 150 dollars. 

Overall, I like this company because you haul for only one customer, and you don't have to wait on backhauls. When you deliver your batteries to a walmart, you pickup their old junk ones. If they don't have any, then you go on to your next delivery.

Most the drivers have been here for 10yrs or more so the turnover rate is extremely low. Really good place to  work.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Transportation specialist 4 salaries reported	$53,375 per year
Truck driver 3 salaries reported	$77,500 per year
Order picker 10 salaries reported	$24.50 per hour
Diesel mechanic 1 salary reported	$27.00 per hour
Driver 1 salary reported	$31.50 per hour

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