Driver of the Year Testimonials

Brian Dillman, 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

The best part about driving for Ruan is the security you have and the backing you have, especially the customer service when you have a breakdown. You never feel like you're on your own. That means a lot, knowing that you have support.

 

 

Bruce Henderson, 2008 and 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

If someone was going to start in the trucking business, I'd tell him to look at Ruan because they're second to none. They're the best place to build your future. You can support your family, you can make great money, and you can meet great people.

 

My personal philosophy on safety is it's an everyday thing. I think it, I live it, I practice it, I preach it. I tell my drivers in meetings you cannot talk enough about safety. It protects you. When everybody's safe and doing the right thing, everybody wins.

 

When I'm serving my customers, I go the extra mile. I make sure everything is cleaner than when I found it. I ask them questions, "is there anything I can do better," and I get their input on how I can do my job better because the customer is number one.

 

 

Chris Cangelosi, 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

To help serve the customer, I try to be flexible, listen to their needs. Always thinks of ways to do better, to be more efficient, to do what I can to make the customer happier.

 

 

David Iiams, 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

My advice to a new driver is to find a reputable company that fits your lifestyle-and then take ownership of it. When you drive, you need to use your equipment like you own it, and you need to treat your customer as if it was your company. If you do that, everybody's happy.

 

Integrity is the core value that's most important to me. A person is only as good as his word. As drivers, there are thousands of shortcuts you can take, but you have to always do the right thing. Whether you're in a crowd or all by yourself, you have to do the right thing.

 

 

Doug Quick, 2009 Driver of the Year

 

The best part about driving for Ruan is the family atmosphere and the way you get treated. It's a good job and I feel like I'm part of the family.

 

 

John Hart, 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

The best part of working for Ruan is the overall quality of the company. The equipment, the management, the customers, the coworkers-there really is little downside. And a great upside.

 

"My personal philosophy on safety is safety, economy and comfort. That is, to be a safe driver results in an economical operation. As far as I'm concerned, when you have a safe, economical operation, you have a stress-free environment. For me, that is comfort.

 

 

John Lins, 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

The best part about Ruan is that you the opportunity to take part in many things, not just being a driver. You can take part in policy making and decision making. They allow for the input and involvement.

 

Safety is a culture. You live within your culture. If you don't have a safety culture, you really don't have anything because safety is the biggest thing there is to driving a truck or really about anything you do these days.

 

 

Wayne Johnson, 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

When my terminal manager told me I was selected as a region winner, I was thinking "I'm not that special." I do my job the best way I know how. I was taught by my father that when you work, you do the best you can, no matter what you're doing. So that's what I do.

 

 

Wayne Plunkett, 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

My personal philosophy on safety is that it don't take a minute to be safe and a second to be dead. That's the way I've always looked at it. Safety is very important to me. I want to go home and see my wife and family and grandkids.

 

 

Wes Walker, 2009 Driver of the Year Region Winner

 

All the core values together are important. But my favorite is enjoyment-Being able to enjoy with confidence that you did your job and did your best all the time and did what was right.

 

 

Albert Ramirez, San Antonio, TX, T166 with Ruan since 2005, 2008 DOY Region Winner

 

When I serve a customer, I always go in with a smile and make sure everything gets delivered and picked up properly. I make sure the customer is smiling when I leave.

 

 

Charles Hearst, T308 Mulberry FL, Ruan for a year, 2008 DOY Region Winner

 

My favorite part about working for Ruan is the dedication to drivers and commitment to excellence.

 

If you don't have dedication to what you're doing, then the other core values-integrity, teamwork and enjoyment-don't matter. They're no good.

 

 

Charles Tapley 304, New Mexico, Been with Ruan since 2007, 2008 DOY Region Winner

 

Truck drivers are professionals. As professionals, we need to hold up to our name. To hold up to your name, the number one thing is safety. Not only do you have a load behind you that is not yours, you're also driving a tractor-trailer rig that's much larger than anyone else. Therefore, in all my years of experience, I not only think of the family that I have to go back home to, I think of other families as well. There're teenagers, there're husbands, there're wives out there, and I make it a priority to respect them because they're going to make mistakes. And when they make mistakes, I've got to be ready and understand that I'm much larger than they are. Safety is a very important part of my life.

 

 

Dennis Potter, Monroe, WI, T624, with Ruan for 11 years, 2008 DOY Region Winner

 

Ruan is a great company. I'd been with small mom and pop companies before Ruan, and I always liked that because it was more personal. You think about big companies and hear stories where people say you're just a number, you're just a number. And I was afraid of that. But I took the job and I have had no regrets.

 

Everybody around you on the road is somebody's somebody. I try to put that into perspective as if my wife is in front of me, my some is beside me in a car. That always plays into it for safety because you're always thinking about that person belonging to someone else.

 

 

Marvin Jenkins, T185, Colepepper, VA, with Ruan 22 years, 2008 DOY Region Winner

 

The best thing about driving for Ruan for me is the support system we have for drivers from the top all the way down. Everybody's supported and I couldn't think of a better place to work.

 

My safety philosophy, like the company's, is safety first because we want to get home every day in one piece. What good would it be if the company was 100 percent efficient and succeeded in every other aspect, but we failed in safety? We'd lose everything.

 

 

Rodney Jansen, Ripon CA, with Ruan since 2001, 2008 DOY Region Winner

 

I believe safety is everything. A person needs to do his pre-trips and post-trips to prevent anything from happening during the day. I believe safety is a big part of your livelihood because if you're not safe, you're not going to be driving very long.

 

 

William DeAntiqo, Sante Fe Springs, CA, with Ruan for 4 years, 2008 DOY Region Winner

 

Safety starts the night before you go to work. It means getting up in the morning on time, getting up well rested and showing up on time for work so you're not always in a hurry or rushing. Do a full pre-trip, take care of the business you need to before you leave. It's about all those things you learn, but also things you don't. You need to take care of yourself in your personal life. Enjoy your life as well as your work life because they blend together.

 

It's gratifying knowing you're being appreciated for what you do because sometimes being a driver is not a very thankful job - it can be a thankless job sometimes, especially on the freeway. So knowing someone appreciates the job you do is great.