Ryder Launches Dedicated Contract Carriage Service for True Value
Ryder System Inc. announced that it would provide True Value Co., a wholesale hardware cooperative, with professional drivers, vehicles, maintenance, routing and scheduling services through a dedicated-transportation agreement.
Miami-based Ryder has already begun to manage the transportation services at 10 of True Value’s 12 distribution centers across the United States under the just-announced agreement, Ryder announced.
True Value, which has 4,400 independent retailer locations worldwide, has been a customer of Ryder’s other services for 40 years, John Diez, president of Ryder Dedicated Transportation Solutions, said in a statement. “Over time, we have gotten to know True Value’s business intimately, which has enabled us to help them grow with ease and efficiency. We are pleased to expand our long-standing partnership with True Value, as we remain committed to providing them with unparalleled customer service.”
Prior to 2015, Chicago-based True Value leased or owned its fleet, consisting of 275 tractors and 700 trailers. Due to the acute driver shortage facing the industry as a whole, it became increasingly difficult for the company to recruit its own drivers, Ryder said.
“Our busiest season is in the spring, which is when we need the greatest level of flexibility,” Rob Saper, True Value’s divisional vice president of supply chain operations, said in a release. “Given the inability to lease tractors on a seasonal basis and with drivers being tougher to source, we needed a company like Ryder to step in to help us better serve our retailers through greater flexibility with access to more resources.”
Ryder Supply Chain Solutions ranks No. 13 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire U.S. and Canadian carriers.
True Value is one of the world’s largest retailer-owned wholesale hardware cooperatives with revenue of $1.5 billion in 2014.
