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WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN – Though “there’s been a lot of competition (following) COVID-19” within the transportation industry, Joe Ryder – director of business development at Rands Trucking – said things have remained pretty steady for the Ladysmith-headquartered trucking company thanks to its focus on niche markets.
With more than 40 years of trucking and logistics experience, Ryder said Rands Trucking’s focus on providing windows/doors/furniture and paper products/dry goods hauling services has kept it a step ahead of its competitors.
That, and the company’s intentional focus on doing what’s right for and by its customers, and treating employees like family, he said, has and will continue to keep it going.
Two trucks lead to consistent growth
When Bill Rands started Rands Trucking in 1982, Ryder said he did so with only two trucks.
He said Rands became a legal entity in 1986 and opened its first office and shop in Ladysmith.
In 1995, according to randstrucking.com, the trucking company signed its first major contract with Norco Windows (JELD-WEN ®) in Hawkins.
In the years that followed, Ryder said Rands has added more customers and diversified the products it hauls and the states it hauls to.
During 2000-01, he said the company expanded to Pennsylvania and Ohio.
To keep up with the growing business, per randstrucking.com, Rands Logistics opened in 2009, and in 2011, the company expanded to Chippewa Falls.
At the same time, per the website, the company partnered with a Texas-based energy company to form Chippewa Sand Transportation, and Rands began transporting frac sand.
“At the facility (in Chippewa Falls, there) is this billion-dollar infrastructure, which was a frac sand processing facility,” he said. “It was because of that the Chippewa location was formed. It was out of necessity because at the time, 35 trucks were running three shifts, 24 hours a day for processing and hauling frac sand.”
In 2015, according to randstrucking.com, Rands opened its Medford facility, which mainly hauls Weathershield windows, doors and some furniture.
The following year – 2016 – Ryder said the original office in Ladysmith expanded and remodeled.
In 2020, despite the pandemic, he said Rands Trucking remained strong and even grew its team.
Today, Ryder said Rands Trucking has five terminals – Ladysmith, Chippewa Falls and Medford; Mt. Vernon, Ohio; and Ringtown, Pennsylvania – 155 drivers, 425 trailers and operates 160 trucks throughout the contiguous 48 United States and Canada.
Customer, employee, community – a company stronghold
Ryder said Rands is a blue-collar company, family oriented and one where the drivers at the Chippewa Falls terminal are mostly regional and most of them are home every weekend.
“It’s very rare that they’re not home on a weekend,” he said. “I love that aspect of the Chippewa terminal, in particular. Our Ladysmith and Medford guys are more over-the-road, and it’s their choice as to whether they want to be regional and home on weekends or more over-the-road.”
Ryder said Rands listens to drivers and hires them to fit their schedule, not the other way around.
“I think that’s why our success rate in driver retention is pretty (high) and why we have a low turnover in drivers,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of turnover in our office staff, either.”
A unique aspect of Rands Trucking, Ryder said, is that it offers both touch and no-touch freight.
Touch freight, he said, is where a driver has to physically get into the trailer and move freight to the back so the store’s employees can unload it from the truck safely.
No-touch freight – such as paper, other dry goods and plastic products, including bottled waters Ryder said – is where the products are unloaded onto a dock by a forklift or pallet jack.
“For the drivers who want to earn a little more money, they’re able to do that by taking shipments that are touch freight,” he said. “For example, if there are 20-25 stops along the way where they’re dropping windows, doors or something else like furniture at each stop, they’re paid for each piece of touch freight they drop off.”
Rands’ niche focus of windows, doors and furniture hauling services, Ryder said, is a good example of touch freight.
“It’s not your traditional ‘one ticket, one drop’ (operation) – there are multiple stops along the way,” he said. “There’s some elbow grease involved. Drivers for these jobs know they’re going to have to move stuff – not just sit in the cab, back into a dock, get unloaded and be on their way.”
Ryder said Rands Trucking is a company “that says what we’re going to do, and does what we said we were going to do – and we show up.”
Besides the “normal freight,” Ryder said Rands will haul almost anything – including pumpkins in the fall and Christmas trees during the holiday season, along with shrubs and other trees, etc., during different times of the year.
As a full-service transportation company, Ryder said Rands also has a brokerage or logistics department that handles any extra loads.
“For example, we do flatbed loads and will broker flatbed, reefer (refrigerated) and specialty-size trailer loads through our brokerage department, which operates under the name Rands Logistics,” he said.
A positive attitude
Ryder said Rands’ dedication to its staff and customers is equally matched by its commitment to the communities where they are located.
One of the longest-running community events Rands has been involved in, he said, is the annual Hunt of a Lifetime for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which is a highly personal event for Bill Rands himself.
In 1996, Ryder said Bill fell from a hunting tree stand, breaking his back and, as a result, was left partially paralyzed.
Ryder said the accident inspired Bill to do something for youngsters between the ages of 12-18 with physical disabilities or life-altering illnesses.
For him personally, Ryder said Bill modified his 3,000 acres of Ladysmith land and cabin to become handicap-accessible, and, due to a lack of hunting equipment on the market for someone who is handicapped, he designed what he needed to hunt – some of which he eventually patented.
Ryder said he also designed a power tree-stand lift and platform that could hold a wheelchair plus up to two additional people.
Bill also helps give kids who come there to hunt each fall – as Rands’ guests – Ryder said, a positive approach to their own lives and circumstances.
Regardless of the awards and accolades Rands has received over the years, Ryder said, for Bill, inspiring kids and giving them the chance to forget about their daily circumstances for a few days is his greatest accomplishment.
Today, Ryder said Bill walks with the aid of canes and works out of the Ladysmith office for an hour or two each day when he’s in the area.
The trucking company’s involvement in the community, Ryder said, also includes sponsoring many chamber of commerce events; financially supporting local law enforcement agencies and other nonprofits; and contributing to the annual Farmer Appreciation meal, the local high school’s annual athletic banquet and the Chippewa Valley Lip-sync Battle in Eau Claire.
“I got a call from the Eau Claire Axemen, the new professional Arena football team coming here,” he said. “We are going to be partnering with them to store their field here at Rands in our trailers and will also provide some transportation and additional storage for them – whatever else they may need to help make their first football season here a success.”
Ryder said the company also regularly gives tours of their plants to students where they can talk with drivers and other staff, explore the trucks and take selfies in the cab of a semi.
Furthermore, he said, Rands offers tours to whoever wants to take one.
“Someone from our local Economic Development Corporation recently had a day off and toured the Chippewa plant with his two-year-old son,” he said.
Continued diversification
Looking at the trucking company’s future, Ryder said over the next five to 10 years, he’s hopeful for growth.
“Freight is stagnant right now, but we would love to grow and have some more trucks in Chippewa (Valley region),” he said. “We’d actually like to double our fleet in Chippewa (Falls) from 12 to 25 in the next two years.”
Ryder said the strategic plan also includes diversifying Rands’ customer base.
“That’s easier said than done, but when you’re dependent on a sector of freight like windows and doors, what do you do in the wintertime?” he said. “That’s why we haul the paper products and other dry goods, the basic commodities that don’t need refrigeration. So, diversification is definitely one of our goals.”
However, Ryder said Rands is highly committed to maintaining its current customers.
“You can’t get new customers if you don’t take care of the old,” he said. “We would like to grow a couple of our terminals, too.”
Though autonomous vehicles have been in the news lately, Ryder said that’s something Rands will never do.
“We don’t ever see Rands going down that route,” he said. “We like manned vehicles and won’t ever use autonomous ones.”
However, Ryder said that doesn’t mean Rands trucks don’t have up-to-date technology, including GPS tracking.
“All of our drivers are 100% electronic logging compliant,” he said.
Ryder said Rands also stressed the importance of a healthy work-home life balance – “that’s big with us.”
“We take our drivers’ needs seriously and try to stay on top of the market trends with challenges and new trends,” he said.
Ryder said the Rands team considers itself decent stewards of the economy and the environment regarding its fuel consumption by making sure “we’re driving the most fuel-efficient routes, whenever possible, and so on.”
More information can be found at RandsTrucking.com.
