Ryder is an awful company to work for. Although, I did work with some great, knowledge, hard working people who were beaten down by being "Ryderized" over the years.
Did I mention that Ryder is an awful company to work for. You’re literally just a number. Layoffs were commonplace. I was just one of the “numbers”...The reason given for my lay-off was the decline in business due to Covid.( I call BS as we were getting slammed with road calls..but I digress). Also, Ryder was in the midst of a "Shop Modernization" before I got laid off. The company started to outsource PM scheduling to their centralized call center that used to be performed by a Customer Service Coordinator, or OMT at the shop level. Reading between the lines, this doesn't bode well for employees in the shop office.... Ryder is not good for anyone looking for a long term career. I saw numerous incidences where Techs were "held back" in advancing their training because they weren't part of the "clique" (if you know what I mean). I was also held back, I pretty much only answered the phone, scheduled PM's, and did some odds and ends stuff, even though the position I was in required me to learn so much more. I took the initiative to learn Parts and (with help from a knowledgeable Parts guy). Ryder is all metric based (Tech efficiency, Vehicle Maintenance Index 96% or higher, % of Units on the Shop Report, Parts Cycle Counts, et. cetera). Work environment is stressful, Politics of the shop, Co-workers on ego trips (Example: Person "W" is a Supervisor and sends an email to person "X" & "Y" about a downed unit, but leaves out person "Z" on the email because person "W" thinks person "Z" is just an "Trainee", therefore the "Trainee" is beneath him and doesn't need to know about what happened to the broken down unit. This would create a major communication problem, and it happened on a regular basis) , or Co-workers who decide to show up and leave when they feel like it (that creates more undue stress on the other people who work in the shop). Other Shops will pass off road calls to your shop (even though it's that shops customer and they can easily dispatch a tech/tow truck just as easily as you can) causing more stress than needs to be. How about when a driver breaks down, calls the Ryder Customer Response Center ("RCRC"-This is another metric your graded on; if repair isn't completed after 2 hours be prepared to explain why it wasn't completed in that time), and the RCRC agent gives you the wrong information (location of breakdown, nature of breakdown) adding to the driver's downtime. There are a bunch of other negatives as well, such as dealing with some surly and rude driver's (I'm talking about driver's who will literally yell at your Service Manager, and treat all the tech's and office staff like dirt and is still allowed to enter the premises because he drives for a "National Customer"), or having to send a tech 15 miles away to a customer's yard to replace a headlight bulb because the driver's boss won't allow him to swing by the shop for a less than 5 minute repair. There are too many other negatives to list. In summary work for Ryder short term if you're looking for experience in the transportation industry. I don't recommend Ryder for a long term career. Ryder will take advantage of you and drop you when they see fit. I don't want to see someone who has great work ethic and genuinely a good person waste years of their life working for Ryder only to be railroaded in the end. You deserve better!