Volvo Recognizes Ruan, Searcy for Safety Excellence

Volvo Trucks presents symbolic checks to Ruan and Searcy representatives (John Sommers II for Transport Topics)

PHILADELPHIA — Although each was founded with just one truck and are both still family-owned, Ruan Transportation Management Systems of Des Moines, Iowa and Searcy Trucking Ltd., of Winnipeg, Manitoba , are very different-size companies.

Ruan, founded in 1932 and ranked No. 41 on the Transport Topics top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada, has more than 3,900 trucks that drove more than 246 million miles last year. Searcy, founded in 1969, has 88 trucks that drove not quite 7 million miles in 2014.

But Ruan and Searcy share a commitment to safety that earned them $25,000 checks to be used for ongoing safety-related programs as the winners of Volvo’s Trucks Safety Awards.

“Safety is the cornerstone of who we are,” Goran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks’ North American sales and marketing, said Oct. 19 at American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition. “Safety doesn’t happen by accident.”

Thanks in part to their ongoing safety programs, Ruan, the winner in the over-20 million-miles category, and Searcy, the winner in the under-20 million-miles category, don’t have many accidents. Searcy had an accident-frequency rate of just 0.58 in 2014, while Ruan wasn’t much higher at 0.61.

Mike Cain, vice president for original equipment for award co-sponsor Michelin America Truck Tires, said that his company has “an unwavering commitment to safety.”

Nyberg said that’s also true of Searcy and Ruan, who were judged the safest in North America by their low accident rates and the breadth of their safety programs. 

“Safety is a core part of their business,” Nyberg said. “Everybody wins when accidents are avoided. Roadways are safer. People are safer. And costs decrease.”

According to Nyberg, Ruan became the first transportation company to introduce a formal safety program, way back during the 1940s.

“There is no bad safety award,” said Ralph Arthur, president of dedicated contract carriage for Ruan, which mandates quarterly safety training and recognizes a safe driver of the year and drivers who reach a million miles safely.

Searcy, which, like Ruan, exclusively uses Volvo trucks, has a “right to decide” program which empowers drivers to temporarily discontinue a trip if road conditions are too hazardous during western Canada’s harsh winters.

“We feel very privileged to be recognized in this manner,” Searcy President Norm Blagden said. “At Searcy, we believe that safety’s not something you do part time. It is a culture. It’s something that we’re conscious of every day. The employees really make that happen.”