Her artwork hangs in the office. Her car show awards line her shelves. Her company was recently named Business of the Year by the local chamber of commerce. To the unfamiliar reader, she might seem like a Wonder Woman of sorts (after all, does a person this well-rounded truly exist?) but to her employees, she’s referred to as “Mama.”
Riels’ professional life consists of multiple careers. She first began working in banking, then went to work for herself as the owner of a small general store. Eventually she sold the store and decided to retire. But she couldn’t keep still. She went back to work part-time in a filing position for the trucking company where Alan worked at the time. A few days a week eventually turned into a full-time position.
When the time was right, Alan decided to start his own trucking company, and he wanted his mother’s involvement. Dedicated Logistics was born, and the rest is history.
The matriarch of Dedicated Logistics
When Riels and Alan started Dedicated Logistics, Alan assumed the operational roles, and Riels handled the financials. It was Riels’ conservative bookkeeping that allowed the company to grow from just one borrowed truck to 75 owned trucks—with zero debt to their name.
When asked why she agreed to start a trucking company with her son while her peers were retiring, she said it was because of multiple reasons. She wanted to spend more time with her son, she wanted to see him succeed, and because she and Alan agree on running business conservatively: “We both watch what goes out and what comes in,” she said. And, not to mention, they work very well together.
The pair built a company that they say, in many ways, feels like family.
“We have very good people that work for us,” Riels said. “We have the drivers, we have the office members, we have the mechanical side of it. It's been good. It is a family.”
It’s true that many small-business owners refer to their company culture as “family,” but at Dedicated Logistics, that term holds more weight. After all, how many businesses have an in-house mama?
It’s “because I’m so much older than they are,” Riels said, explaining why some of her employees refer to her that way. But Alan said the reason she got the nickname is simple.
“She treats them like they’re her kids,” Alan said. “If they need a pat on the back, they’ll get it [from Riels], and if they need a [scolding], they’ll get that, too.”
It was actually one of Dedicated Logistics employees, Jeanie Morgan, that nominated Riels as a Woman in Transportation, highlighting the love and adoration Riels’ employees have for her.
“She looks out for me and my wellbeing as a person, she offers genuine unbiased advice, motivates on bad days—there’s not many quite like her,” Morgan said. “We hug, we say ‘I love you’ every time we speak. She is such an inspiration on a personal and business level.”
Jimmy Woods, Dedicated Logistics’ operations manager, said, “I feel like I am one of her own sons, and she treats me just that way.”
Woods recalls having lost both of his parents while working at Dedicated Logistics.
Riels “took care of me and was there for me before and during the time of my loss and even after,” Woods said. “To this day, she lets me know she is there for me, and I can talk to her as I would my own mother or father.”
When employees do need correction, even that is done in a motherly fashion. Riels said that if there comes a moment when things do need to be “straightened out, you do that—but do it in a nice way. I’m not going to fuss at anybody; just [correct] in a nice way—it helps.”
Woods and his coworkers also can’t talk about their work mama without mentioning how hard she works.
“Mrs. Ruth’s work ethic is beyond anything I have ever seen in my working career,” Woods said.
Scott Richardson, Dedicated Logistics safety manager, said: “For years, [Riels] put in many 60- and 70-hour work weeks. She would often be here at 7 or 8 p.m. during the week and worked many weekends. Even when she cut back on her work hours several years later, she still worked a 40-hour week every week.”
Even in the midst of health issues—when surely someone of her age would retire—Riels decided to set up a home office to ensure she could keep working.
Love for trucking
How did Riels’ promise of working 22 months turn into 22 years? There are many possible reasons, but the company’s continual success and deep family roots could play a role. Some members of Riels’ and Alan’s family work for them today, and many other family members have trickled in and out of the business depending on their stage of life—one of Riels’ grandsons helped wash trucks at the young age of 10.
Regardless of the family aspect of the business, of all the places she’s worked, Riels has enjoyed her jobs in trucking the most.
“There's something different that we do every day, and it's quite challenging,” she said. “It's a challenging business. You have to really stay on your toes to keep up with what's going on.”
Her advice to other women in the industry is that with a job in trucking, “what you put in is what you get out of it,” and while trucking is “not a bed of roses every day ... if this is the career you want, go for it. Because this is a good career.”
While Riels is well past the age that many people choose to retire, she said she enjoys working and doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon.
