Meet Allison Meiners, Director of Safety Programs
How long have you been with Ruan?
Around this time 11 years ago, I was a senior at Iowa State University looking for a job in the transportation industry. I interviewed with someone who would quickly become one of the most influential leaders I’ve had, Bob Hogstad. I landed my first job out of college as a manager trainee and haven’t looked back since! Fast forward from 2009, and I’ve been fortunate to work with amazing colleagues in all areas of the company whether it be behind the wheel, behind the wrench, behind the desk, or in field operations. After moving to the safety department in 2014, I found a passion for safety, compliance, and regulations.
Tell us about your team.
I lead a team comprised of six compliance specialists, a compliance manager, and a safety support specialist. Our team is responsible for training and maintaining compliance at a federal, state, and local level. Much of our time is spent performing internal audits, training team members across the company, and taking deeper dives into regulations. We manage a compliance hotline for our drivers to call in with questions. We enjoy being able to connect with our most important asset, our drivers, each day.
Many of our days in 2019 were spent prepping for and implementing the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate across our 4,500+ driver fleet. We’re kicking off 2020 with continued education and training on ELDs and internal process auditing, as well as other industry initiatives such as the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse and potential hours-of-service reform.
Our department is growing by two compliance specialists, and we will begin training those individuals soon. With our department growth, we are excited to restructure to ensure common and consistent practices across the company. It will be a busy 2020, but we have an amazing team that is up for the challenge!
Tell us about your life outside of work.
When I’m not with my work family, my husband and I are busy with our four kids. We enjoy watching and playing sports; our closets are filled with Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Iowa State University, and University of Iowa gear. I also enjoy bike riding and have participated in RAGBRAI (a bike ride across the state of Iowa) six times.