Question

Ryder Mini Case

Ryder is an American-based provider of transportation and supply chain management solutions with global operations. Ryder specializes in (1) fleet management, (2) supply chain management (SCS and (3) dedicated contract carriage. Ryder operates in North America, the United Kingdom, and Asia.   Ryder’s fleet management business segments is its largest business segment. This segment consist primarily of contract based full service leasing, contract maintenance, commercial rental and fleet support services. Ryder’s Supply Chain Management (SCS) segment is where Ryder owns and maintains the trucks and the customer decides where they go. These solutions are logistics management services designed to optimize a customer’s supply chain.    Ryder’s dedicated contract carriage is a combination of services. In this segment, Ryder combines full service leasing and supply chain management. Ryder provides service to a large number of industries: automotive, electronics, transportation, grocery, wood products, food service, and home furnishing. Ryder’s finances over the last 5 years are as follows:

Ryders Financial Data
	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Revenue ($ billions)	6.30	6.56	6.20	4.88	5.13
Net Income ($ millions)	249	254	200	62	118
Earnings per Share	4.09	4.24	3.52	1.11	2.25

During the recession (2007-2010), Ryder has lost significant revenue and net income and earnings per share has also been negatively affected.

Discussion Questions:

1. What activity(s) of Porter’s value chain does Ryder perform?

2. What areas of its business should Ryder focus upon?

Answer 1

1. In the porter’s Value chain there are two types of activities i.e. primary and secondary activities. Inbound Logistics, Operations, Outbound Logistics, Marketing and Sales, and Service are coming under primary activities. Procurement, Human Resource management, Technological Development and Infrastructure comes under Secondary activities. The activities of porter’s Value chain do the Ryder perform are as follows:

Primary Activities such as contract based full service leasing, contract maintenance, commercial rental and fleet support services, Ryder owns and maintains the trucks and the customer decides where they go, optimize the customer’s supply chain etc. It combines full service leasing and supply chain management. But the secondary activities are also important for the business to do such as procurement, transportation management, HR Management, Technological development in the operations of the business.

2. The areas of its business should Ryder focus upon are Fleet Management as it is the main business area for the Ryder. This includes primarily of contract based full service leasing, contract maintenance, commercial rental and fleet support services. The business segment is large in this case and the company main core activities this area approaches. As the company do this business from the long time so they need to work on that business itself. The reson is that the people become expertise in this area and work more effectively.