When I reflect on Ryder’s 87 years of delivering innovative logistics and transportation solutions, I get excited about Ryder’s future. By ensuring long-term viability as a profitable and thriving enterprise, we are better positioned to make an impact where our business intersects with our communities and stakeholders. At Ryder, we strive to integrate corporate responsibility and sustainability into every aspect of our business, and understand that sustainability goes hand-in-hand with maintaining economic viability.
Our commitment to sustainability supports our mission to provide safe, reliable, and efficient innovative solutions to enable our customers to deliver on their promises. We also aim to operate efficiently by managing costs to drive profitability while taking into account the environmental impacts associated with our actions. As with any enterprise, our work requires resources. These include the facilities, fuel, electricity, water, and equipment needed to maintain our operations, the labor and expertise of tens of thousands of talented individuals, and the trust of the customers and communities we serve. The choices we make as a company today have a direct and long-lasting impact on the availability of those resources and therefore our ability to continue serving our customers years from now.
Ryder’s corporate success gives us not only the means but also the responsibility to utilize our expertise and resources for the good of the communities we serve. When faced with the unpreceded challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ryder quickly responded. We instituted new health and safety measures to protect our employees and customers. Our workforce was essential in supporting transportation and supply chain networks to help sustain uninterrupted flow of essential goods like food, fuel, milk, and medical supplies for our communities. At the end of 2020, we were able to thank 30,000 of our frontline employees for their extraordinary efforts during the pandemic with a one-time bonus of $28 million.
Ryder and the company-funded Ryder Charitable Foundation have a long legacy of building stronger communities where our employees live and work by supporting charitable organizations with financial contributions, expertise, and committed volunteers. Ryder’s charitable giving reflects both our business and our values – safety, expertise, innovation, collaboration, and equality. Over the past two years, Ryder has given more than $5.5 million toward disaster recovery, education and skills training, hunger and food insecurity, veterans, and efforts to increase diversity and minority representation in our industry. I am proud of everything Ryder has accomplished and am energized by the opportunities we have ahead of us.
In this Corporate Sustainability Report, you’ll learn about Ryder’s sustainability principles and goals, as well as some of the initiatives we are undertaking to protect our planet; ensure the safety of our employees, customers, and the public; foster talent, diversity, and equality in our workforce; improve the local communities where we live and work; and, of course, ensure that we do all of this while upholding the highest standards of ethics and integrity.
From investing in new fleet technologies, to load and route optimization and waste minimization efforts in our warehouses and facilities, Ryder is committed to maintaining sustainable and ethical business practices that provide maximum value to our stakeholders.
On behalf of the approximately 39,000 employees at Ryder, we are pleased to share our 2019-2020 Corporate Sustainability Report with you. We are proud of our efforts this past year and look forward to building an Ever better™ future.
Robert Sanchez
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Ryder System, Inc.
