Extended Operations Center Provides After Hours Support to Ruan Operations and Customers

Ruan’s Extended Operations Center (EOC), based at our Des Moines Campus and created nearly two years ago, has become the single resource at Ruan that supports operations, professional drivers, carrier partners, and customers in a 24/7 industry.

Led by Manager of Extended Operations Carlisle Wheeler, Ruan’s EOC continues to expand its support to all operations teams with the goal of accomplishing the following objectives:

• Reduce the workload on on-site teams by providing support after hours for events involving their operations.

• Be a readily available resource with access to real-time data to support our driving professionals and customers after traditional office hours.

• Reduce waste and cost and drive efficiencies through the organization.

The Ruan Extended Operations Center was designed to allow our on-site operational team members to enjoy a more focused work-life balance by taking over the responsibility of addressing driver and customer issues that take place outside of traditional office hours. The 17-person team also supports drivers with equipment concerns or any other issues, monitors on-time starts and deliveries, and ensures drivers have updated and accurate route information at the beginning of their shifts.  

“We’ve had tremendous success partnering with our EOC team,” said Vice President of Operations Shawn Goad. “We first looked to them to help strike a better work-life balance for our field leaders by covering nights and weekends for us, but they quickly became experts for our business and now function as a true extension of our operations team. The hand-off between our field teams and the Des Moines Campus is now seamless and invisible to our drivers and customers.”

Moreover, the EOC team supports our valued customers by providing real-time information for load tracking, offering a readily available resource to respond to and address their ever-changing supply chain environment, and monitoring their transportation system after-hours and contacting the customer representatives directly to resolve issues in a timely manner.

“We have invested important resources into creating a consistent, seamless customer and team member experience throughout a 24-hour day, and throughout a seven-day week. The Extended Operations Center provides our operations teams a new level of support, affording each operation the flexibility of staffing and improving critical work-life balance. Additionally, our frontline teams can focus on driver engagement, connection, and support," said Ruan President and COO Dan Van Alstine. "At the same time, we are in a great position to provide excellent support to our customers and carrier partners during non-traditional hours. The effectiveness and efficiencies we’re seeing with our EOC are very compelling, and the level of flexibility, quick response time, and tailored support is a critical differentiator for Ruan in the marketplace.” 

A few of the 2019 service wins highlighting the capabilities of the Ruan Extended Operations Center include:

1. The EOC began remotely monitoring refrigerated trailer temperatures for a customer in case of cooling unit failures. In the first quarter of 2019, the EOC identified two coolers that failed, saving $200,000 of product.

2.  The EOC monitors an operation’s driver movements to ensure they meet their on-time delivery expectations. The local team uses pick-up and delivery window features within Fleet Operations, Ruan’s dispatching system, to allow this level of support.

3.  The EOC stepped in to support an account that has historically staffed the local dispatch office 24/5. The EOC began answering customer emails and driver concerns after-hours and monitoring on-time starts for drivers overnight and on weekends, allowing the local team to create a better work schedule for their team members.

4.  Ruan drivers and outside carriers hauling for a large manufacturing customer contact the EOC on the weekends with route changes and load updates. Before this, on-site operational team members were working 16-20 extra hours on the weekends to provide this support.

5.  The EOC began accepting an EDI order feed that came in after-hours from a metals customer and assigning resources against those orders. This service allows the drivers to have real-time load information and the local operations team to focus on what’s happening at home while having peace of mind that the customer and drivers are taken care of.