Ruan reviews

Great company! Grab it if you can! Pay isnt the best but you are hauling milk. I have yet to hear anything bad about them though

I run out of Ripon. 

Until you gain seniority, your hours will be all over the clock.

They can run you 16 on/8 off under the AG rule.

Doesn't happen every day, but it does happen.

They are a union company, which has not impressed me at this point.

The pay is hourly, and after 90 days it goes up a little. That's it.

Might be different at Tulare, but I doubt it.

There is a lot to get used to.

Well, sure. As of 30 September 2015, the Ruan RIPON terminal is officially closed. 90 days before this; let's say around , June 15, 2015, everybody was getting wind from management that we were going to shut down. Coworkers --senior guys-- were jumping ship like crazy. But the "official" word was, we are not closing down. Corporate forced our terminal managers to post some "rumor mill" memo in our driver's room saying, "we have been receiving several disturbing calls alleging that we are closing down... this is NOT true." 2 weeks later, I get a WARN Act letter in the mail saying, we are all getting fired. 

I talked to some douche bag "partner" down in Tulare who busted out with some pseudo-legalese about this and that, and told me to go screw myself ...

It is a union shop, and that could be good or bad. But let me ask a rhetorical question. Weren't the Unions formed to limit the work day to 8 hours a day and protect employee rights? At Ruan, the Union guarantees the work day can run as long as 16 hours a day. The union never did anything for me except take my dues and subsidize my health insurance, a little bit.

They also abuse an "Agricultural Exemption" for milk hauling, since milk is a raw product. The exemption, which was originally used for farmers--GUYS WHO LIVE ON THE FARM-- is applied to this position in trucking, so you will regularly come back to work after 8 hours of clocking out. Consider your commute time unless you live at the terminal , and you are looking at 5 hours of sleep on many nights. You barely have time to take a dump, take a shower, and eat a meal before you are driving back to work. 

What else? Management is in Iowa, so we are constantly getting orders from these faceless people who we do not know personally. The management/union dynamic doesn't really work too well at Ruan. Management is a revolving door. I think we had 3 terminal managers in my six months at Ruan. Our dispatchers, were hired from a local temporary agency and had no trucking experience. The managers looked down on our line of work ,because they were not personally invested in our line of work. Our dispatch manager wasn't even licensed to drive a commercial vehicle. 

About that union/management dynamic; the management's theory seemed to be, blame every single thing you possibly can on the driver ,because we have a union, and we cannot be fired . Management, were largely scared people who were terrified of losing their jobs. RUAN scheduled me to take a Weigher/Sampler exam just 3 hours after I got off work, on my day off. They worked me 16 hours that night. I couldn't accommodate this exam. When I did not appear for the exam, they tried to blame me for not letting them know about the schedule conflict. I did tell them about it all week. Then, they denied me ever telling them about the conflict; instead, they were busy covering themselves by blaming me. I was labeled a "no show" when, in reality, they created a scheduling conflict and failed to resolve it. They tried to force me to pay for the 2nd Weigher/Sampler exam. After getting a hold of the Union contract, I discovered that, not only was I due for a raise they weren't planning on giving me, but they were contractually obligated to pay for this licensing exam. 

So the workplace was especially toxic at Ruan. Management hated the union employees, the union employees were weak in their commitment to both the union, and to the company. They worked the hell out of us, and the management didn't know what they were doing because they all came from Select Staffing or whatever the hell. 

Spare yourself and go haul fuel or chemicals, stay away from this place. The writing is on the wall that they are gonna close down Tulare next.

As of a few days ago, I was let go from the terminal over here in Clovis over some rather, minor thing.

No accident involved, just dozed off for about 10 minutes while waiting for the tank to get done pumping(after having been there for an hour prior waiting on the lines to get washed).

We're on our third terminal manager since I got on here in July '12.

While I was expecting a suspension/reassignment at the very most(no disciplinary actions for anything up to this point), I was canned after being told not to come to work for the following night.

The previous managers would've been somewhat more sympathetic to the minor offense, but this new guy just pulls the nuclear option and ends it right there.

Luckily, I've found a few other, locally based gigs to get onto in the area before I proceed back to my original plan of getting moved back out to a larger city.

Indian River and Cardinal have pretty much already approved me.

So while the sour taste of that new, crude terminal manager remains somewhat, at least I was able to make a soft landing elsewhere.

Also, with the shortage of tanker drivers locally and the way they are pushed there, this guy's going to end up taking the terminal further downhill than it's already been.

Other than that, the three year ride was great and I'm proud to say I lasted that long at one place.

Ruan Logistics in Pompano Beach,FL. that handles the Whole Foods account is a big joke. If you want your life to be run by a text message then go ahead this is the job for you. They bring you in for an interview,start you off with part time with the promise of making you full time after 2 months. Well after two months of auditioning and busting your ### to get full time...YOU DON'T. You're go 6,7,8 months sometimes a full year before you become full time with benefits. If you have small children that depends on you for insurance then don't go to Ruan The terminal manager P_____ has turned making full time a freaking reality show called FULL-TIME IDOL. No one man should have that type of power to decide who get's benefits or not when the company itself gives it's employess full time. He only texts you never carry a conversation. You don't have a set schedule. You have to wait for him to text you around 8-8:30 at night and when you don't get a text and think you're off, he'll text you to come in while you're enjoying your suppose to be day off. If you don't text him back while you're driving,( Yes he text his drivers while you're driving) HE CUT'S YOUR HOURS. If you tell him you can't come in unexpectly on your suppose to be day off, HE CUT'S YOUR HOURS. If you talk to him about becoming full time,HE CUT'S YOUR HOURS. You're hired part time but yet you're working full time hours with no benefits.

we were to have our safety award dinner, our spouses were not allowed to come this time. instead they gave everyone the boot. when I got home the wife said that was a fast awards dinner, I told her it was they even gave us all a Christmas present to, they closed the terminal she thought I was joking till I called their rival an went to work for them.

Ruan has this thing - they're good, friendly people (choke, gag).

Yesterday I got a text. Call me before you go in to work. I workED in their Terre Haute, Indiana facility, pulling Menards trailers out of the local DC. 

My supervisor, David, personifies every single thing I hate about people. Cold, as a stone. Liar. Back biter. In a word - despicable.

On this particular phone call I was admonished for saying the people at Menards should be ashamed of themselves for making a poor, skinny little GIRL change a truck tire, when there were big strong guys around. I'm not supposed to be smart enough to see the microphone "hidden" in the truck, of course... I stopped the tirade, in which I was instructed on who I should be and what I should say by some little pipsqueek who will need to shave for the third time next month by quitting them, flat.

These people are as dirty and as sorry as they come. You were warned.

.... aside from the OP's story. Ruan does suck. Crap benefits, crap pay, lots and lots of safety involvement, and they are one of those underbidding companies to get accounts.

I used to haul milk tankers for this company RUAN. Or should I say, RUIN. I had to file a workers comp claim for an injury. These idiots took me in a back room for two hours and grilled me down in every possible way about how I violated company policy in reporting this work injury. I almost literally reached across the room and slapped the eff out of these people. Called up the idiot in Tulare--I think he was top business partner, Ben Williams--gave him an ear full while jacked up on dr. prescribed pain medications. Threatened to sue the company. This idiot asked if his coworker and fellow business partner could "listen" in on the line, probably to save themselves from a legal battle with a witness--I told him hell no. A couple weeks later I lined up another job and when the company began to demand that I return to work, I flipped them the bird and started hauling gasoline. I hate, I hate, I hate that company with a passion. They're gross violators of HOS rules and every other rule. God , I could write a novel about it. I think I did in a previous thread actually.

Also, it looks like they have a standardized policy of illegally threatening to fire drivers for reporting a worker's comp injury. The pretext they use? "You didn't report the injury to a 1800 number first, so we could direct you to the appropriate medical facility." I ran this by my employment lawyer and he said , in no way could they even require that legally; that it is completely and utterly illegal to have such a requirement. Interestingly, a dude who trained me at my gasoline hauling job, used to work for RUAN at a different location. This guy fell off a truck and split his face open. The business partner --very upper management--had a safety meeting, took him aside after the meeting was over, and personally threatened to fire him over reporting this injury "if anything like this ever happens again." Completely disgusting and illegal retaliation. I hope they lose every asset they have to pay legal fees one day.