Role Change for Ryder Logistics

The goal of Ryder Integrated Logistics’ new president, Raymond B. Greer, is to make the company the first true global provider of supply chain management services.

A former logistics executive for Federal Express Corp., Mr. Greer joined Miami-based RIL, a subsidiary of Ryder System, in 1994. After serving as chief information officer, he became general manager of global operations.

He has been deeply involved in helping to transform RIL from primarily a provider of dedicated contract carriage to the industry’s largest third-party logistics company, with annual revenue of $1.6 billion.

“Ryder went from being a dedicated contract carriage company to an integrated logistics provider in three to four years,” Mr. Greer said in a telephone interview last week. “We want to move into supply chain management in half that time.”

To accomplish that objective, he plans to reshape RIL’s logistics business. The enterprise will combine dedicated operations of multiple logistics clients to save costs. It also will use RIL’s partnership with Andersen Consulting and i2 Technologies to devise systems that eliminate inventory from the supply chain. Both strategies have the potential to generate large savings for customers and higher profits for RIL.

“We’ve reached the point where we have the density in our business that we didn’t have three or four years ago,” Mr. Greer said. “That allows us to find multiclient synergies.”

It’s not unusual, for instance, for RIL to operate four or five distribution centers in the same city for different clients. In many cases, clients aren’t interested in commingling products, but according to Mr. Greer, that is changing.

“In reality, integrators like FedEx and United Parcel Service have been doing it for years. So our clients’ appetite for this kind of service has definitely increased.”

For the full story, see the Jan. 4 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.