February 11, 2015 Vol. 12 No. 3

Wouldn’t it be nice to be Ryder System? The huge outfit buys a gazillion trucks every year, and unlike most of the fleet operators reading this, they can get the earnest ear of truck and component makers with the merest nod of the corporate noggin. And you? Well, if you’re running a fleet you might have 52 tractors, 128 trailers, and you’re happy when the Walmart greeter says hi first.

You may actually have a little clout with your local dealer, but Ryder obviously goes national and spells the word this way — CLOUT.

Anyway, I’m glad to see the giant leasing company is leading in the way I think it can and the way I think it should. Just this week Ryder announced plans to offer customers a female-friendly vehicle package for lease, which it says is the first of its kind in the industry. And I’m sure it is.

With the help of various OEMs and the Women in Trucking Association (WIT), a non-profit organization established to encourage the employment of women in our industry, Ryder has come up with a custom vehicle design to better meet the needs of female drivers. It includes 15 unique specs, and Ryder notes that the same specs will also fit the needs of a bunch of guy-type drivers.

The design includes features like adjusted placement of cab grab handles, adjustable seatbelt shoulder straps, better placement of dash cluster gauges, and better access to oil and coolant checks and fill ports.