Ruan Dallas Tx, Oneal steel account?

I worked for Ruan on the O'Neal account at two of their Indiana districts from 2011 until just a few weeks ago. The pay scale is based on $.36 per mile, $6.87 per stop, and a percentage based on the weight of the load. Route drivers can make good money, but the senior drivers get the highest paying routes. I'm not positive it's still in effect, but there was and maybe still is a guaranteed minimum of $850 a week.

Now for the bad. The steel industry fluctuates all the time and since a lot of the pay comes from weight and stops, you might be able to afford a steak dinner one week and have to make due with baloney the next. Make your budget based on the low side to avoid any unpleasantness. Depending on the route you get you can count on anything from $45K-60K annually. Maybe higher if you're lucky enough to get a gravy train route. Routes are bid on once a year, so if you get a crappy one you don't have to put up with it for too long. Turnover on the account is about 20%, so it's not high but you won't be low man for years.

It's almost exclusively flatbed work. Some of the manufacturing locations have vans for certain customers, but there aren't many of them. The loads are a mix of structural stock like beams, angle iron, c channel, bar stock, and tubing varying from 12'-60'. You'll probably haul sheets and plates of all sizes up to 96"x240". Each load will have a little bit of everything, and you will get real creative with your securement to keep it all snug. O'Neal doesn't require you to tarp unless there is a greater than 20% chance of precipitation anywhere on your route, roads are wet, or have been salted. In the summer you can go weeks without touching a tarp. Winter time, you'll probably tarp every day most of the time. Undoing tarps 8-10 times a day gets old fast, but you can usually get away with undoing just enough to get that customer's product off. Don't waste time making it pretty, and throw the straps over the tarps because you'll unload off both sides of the trailer. Official Ruan policy is straps under the tarps, but fishing straps out from underneath the tarps just to pull off 2-3 pcs of material will change your mind quick.

Ruan itself is a decent company to work for. How good depends on local management at a given terminal, but I had no complaints with the company itself. Tractors are late model, low mileage ProStars for the most part. Trailers are mostly decent, although there are still some dinosaurs hanging around. Equipment maintenance is pretty good. Average work day is around 10-12 hours, but 14 isn't uncommon either and Ruan qualifies for the 2 hr. short haul exception, so you'll probably see a 16 once in a while. You'll be running elogs. Despite the hate for eobr's in some circles, I never had a problem with them.

O'Neal can be difficult to work with to the point of frustration. Again, this varies by location, but company wide they have a certain reputation for being hard to work with. CSA 2010 put the screws to them and they had an abysmal rating, which is why they quit operating a private fleet and contracted with Ruan. The two companies work together with varying degrees of success. Some locations are very good with their loads, others want you to haul it no matter what the load looks like. Generally if something needs to be reworked it will be in short order, and just before I left O'Neal began training its loading crews to better understand the driver's needs when it comes to securement.

Overall, it's not a bad job and you can make good money, but you'll work hard for every penny. Certain things like tarping are considered part of the job and don't get any extra pay, but you can make up for it with little perks in other areas. Or not. It depends on the day and the load. Personally, I decided to move on to a different segment of the trucking industry. A lot of your job satisfaction will come from the quality of the local terminal management. I had a great TM and dispatch, and my location had very low turnover. Other locations have drivers quit faster than they can hire them in. If you can, talk to some of the drivers in Dallas to get a feel for what you can expect there.

 

Well said, right now it's baloney season....LOL! March is right around the corner!

 

Ruan doesn't have many other accounts in my immediate area, so I left to work for an LTL carrier. I didn't really like the logistics work because it was like having two employers. I used to tell my terminal manager that he had the worst job in the world because he had to keep two companies happy at all times.

Another thing I forgot to mention, when Ruan contracted with O'Neal in 2011 it was for 4 years so it will be up soon. They'll probably renew, but until the ink's on paper you never know. I started working at O'Neal in 2000 and only went to Ruan when they took over transportation, so I know a little about how they operate. I've seen them contract work out before (maintenance) and then take control back when the contract was up. I'm sure that regaining their operating authority and transferring all the equipment back to their control would be more trouble than they want to take, but they're also just stubborn enough to do it. Operating their own fleet was a point of pride, and there were some mighty hurt feelings when they had to give it up.

 

Ever get a chance to talk to any of the O'neal drivers? I'm kind of curious what they have to say about Dallas myself.