The Logistics of Logistics The Driver's Perspective with Dean Key
Dean Key and Joe Lynch discuss the driver's perspective. Dean is Driver and Team Safety Instructor for Ruan Transportation, a company that provides Dedicated Contract Transportation, Managed Transportation, Value-Added Warehousing, and Brokerage Support Services to customers across the U.S.
About Dean KeyDean Key is a truck driver who works at Ruan Transportation, a family-owned transportation management company, providing Dedicated Contract Transportation, Managed Transportation, and Value-added Warehousing. Dean has been driving for 38 years, the last 26 years at Ruan. Dean started his career at 16 years old driving for his family trucking company in Wyoming. In addition to driving responsibilities, Dean is also a Work Force Ambassador for the Iowa Motor Truck Association and as a Road Team Captain for the American Trucking Association. Both organizations promote the trucking industry and driver safety.
About Ruan TransportationRuan provides Dedicated Contract Transportation, Managed Transportation, Value-Added Warehousing, and Brokerage Support Services to customers across the U.S. Ruan's Integrated Supply Chain Solutions services encompass all aspects of transportation and logistics, providing our customers the ideal combination of asset- and non-asset-based solutions that get your products from point A to point B safely and efficiently. With more than 89 years of transportation management experience, Ruan is one of the top 10 privately owned transportation companies in the country with 300 operations and 6,000 team members.
Key Takeaways: The Driver's Perspective- Dean Key is a truck driver who works at Ruan, a family-owned transportation management company, providing Dedicated Contract Transportation, Managed Transportation, and Value-added Warehousing.
- In the podcast interview Dean shared the driver's perspective on a variety of topics including the driver shortage, hours of services, detention, delays, driver health, sleep, home time, parking, infrastructure problems, electronic logging devices, safety, and weather.
- Dean has worked with Ruan Transportation for over 26 years and started his driving career at age 16 working with his family's trucking business.
- At Ruan, drivers receive ongoing safety training, full benefits after 60 days, and are recognized through several awards programs.
- More than 70 percent of of Ruan's truck drivers are home every night, and nearly all are home multiple times per week.
- Ruan's driver retention rate is four times the industry average.
- Ruan was the first transportation company to implement a formal safety program in the 1940s. Since then, their emphasis on safety has only grown.
- Ruan's Megasafe Safety Program is their overarching, comprehensive safety structure. Megasafe drives mandatory quarterly Impact Meetings, customer team member communications, content in newsletters, posters, boot and PPE programs, and many other initiatives.
- The Megasafe mission is to create a best-in-class safety culture, continuously improve Department of Transportation compliance, eliminate variability, and reduce risk through improved safety and loss prevention management.
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