Ryder Update on Hurricane Relief Efforts

MIAMI, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In response to a growing volume of media inquiries, Ryder System, Inc. , a global leader in transportation and supply chain management solutions, today made public a list of various corporate- and employee-related assistance efforts undertaken following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as well as early indications related to Hurricane Rita.

Through the month of September, Ryder estimates nearly $1 million in cash and in-kind support were provided to employees, customers and the general public affected by the two hurricanes. Ryder and its employees have pledged more than $440,000 in financial donations to support the relief efforts of the American Red Cross and the Ryder Employee Emergency Relief Fund. More than 500 Ryder trucks and trailers have been deployed to the Gulf Coast to deliver over 3,000 tons of food, medical supplies and other relief on behalf of Ryder, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Red Cross and certain customers. Emergency response teams reached out to contact customers, provided extensive support and partnered with them to provide relief to others in the region. Ryder's fuel experts leveraged the Company's position as a top U.S. fuel purchaser, strategically managed Ryder's nationwide inventory and established an online tool to keep fuel flowing and customers' businesses operating. Employees were able to access a 24-hour toll-free hotline and were assisted with ice, water, food, medical supplies, housing, and more than 90 grants of financial assistance. Regular pay and benefits were provided to employees unable to return to work and to employees called to military duty to assist in the recovery efforts.

"We provide this information to assist the business, trade and electronic media who are appropriately working to share positive, inspirational examples of the ways in which corporations and their employees are coming together to provide real assistance in the wake of these tragedies," said Ryder Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Greg Swienton. "We're extremely proud of all the hard work, commitment and outreach that employees are providing to help their fellow employees, our customers and others whose lives have been devastated by Katrina and Rita. The victims of these disasters are in our thoughts and prayers as we and the nation work together to rebuild over time."

The following is a more detailed summary of Ryder's overall recovery efforts, many of which are still underway:

Ryder and Ryder Employee Financial Donations Total More Than $440,000

Financial contributions continue to come in daily from Ryder employees around the world. Through September, Ryder employees have generously donated more than $220,000 to the American Red Cross and the Ryder Employee Relief Fund. The Company is matching employee donations to the American Red Cross and Ryder Employee Relief Fund.

More Than 500 Trucks Deployed to Support Relief Efforts

As in past disaster relief efforts, Ryder donated trucks and equipment and provided resources to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Red Cross and other support organizations. Approximately 200 Ryder trucks continue to be deployed in the impacted area to assist with relief efforts.

Ryder Assisted Delivery of Over 3,000 Tons of Relief Supplies

Ryder vehicles serving the Company, FEMA, the American Red Cross and certain customers transported more than 3,000 tons of food, medical supplies and other items to support the recovery efforts.

Rapid Response Customer Support

Ryder's impacted customers were identified, and Ryder account teams responded within the first hours and days with a variety of flexible solutions to divert operations to alternate facilities and restore operations where possible. Ryder trucks from non-operational locations and mobile service units from other regions were deployed to assist with customer service requirements. Ryder also provided logistical and physical support including generators, office space, water, ice and other assistance on an as-needed basis. Ryder successfully worked with customers to locate alternative warehouse space. Ryder and one of its customers, a leading communications company, worked around the clock, seven days a week, using alternate locations to restore telecommunications services in several impacted areas.

Extensive Fuel Resources and Buying Power Leveraged to Support Recovery

The hurricanes damaged major oil refineries in the Gulf Coast region. Ryder was able to leverage its position as a top fuel purchaser to secure fuel to support relief efforts and the operations of our customers, such as a leading telecommunications company and various food and beverage industry customers, who played vital roles in the overall recovery efforts. By managing and constantly re-deploying its national fuel inventory, no Ryder customer was left without fuel.

These efforts were assisted by Ryder's quick response efforts to provide customers with up-to-date online access to information on fuel availability by specific location, as well as hours of operation and location maps via Ryder's Fuel Update located on Ryder's web site http://www.ryder.com/.

Employee Safety & Well-Being

Ryder ensures that it has the names, addresses and phone numbers of all employees in the projected impact areas prior to the storm - as well as ensures the employees have their supervisor's numbers and the number for the Ryder Emergency Help Desk. Following the hurricane's impact, our first and most urgent priority is locating and securing the well-being of each and every Ryder employee. Approximately 553 employees were initially identified as working or living in the impacted areas. Every Ryder employee was contacted and their well-being confirmed within a week.

To ensure constant communication with employees and customers regarding hurricane relief efforts and the status of operations in the affected area, Ryder developed the Hurricane Response Info Center and the Fuel Service Update, both located on http://www.ryder.com/.

The Hurricane Response Info Center provides employees and customers with up-to-date information covering Relief Efforts, Customer Update, Facilities & Operations Update, Communications Update, Emergency Contact Numbers, the Employee Resource Center and other hurricane relief resources.

Pay and Benefits Extended to Employees Unable to Work

Regular pay and benefits in excess of $275,000 were provided to employees of inoperable business locations, as well as to those employees whose personal circumstances prevented them from returning to work.

Pay and Benefits Extended to Employees Called to Duty

A number of Ryder employees were called to report for duty in the National Guard and Reserve, and others may be called in the future. For employees who were called to report for duty in the military, Ryder provided full make-up pay for the first month of service, after which the Company paid one half of the difference between the employee's military pay and their Ryder pay for an indefinite period.

Employment Assistance and Re-Deployment

Many Ryder employees have returned to work at their home locations. For those in the hardest-hit areas, Ryder redeployed displaced employees to other company locations. Ryder continues to provide regular pay and benefits to employees of locations that have not been able to reopen.

Many storm victims were forced to relocate out-of-state and are trying to establish new lives. To support these individuals, Ryder has been working with local advertisers in Houston, Dallas, Baton Rouge, Memphis and Birmingham to offer job outreach services to those who have been displaced. Ryder has received hundreds of inquiries from the job outreach advertisements. The Company has identified employment opportunities for individuals who may qualify to work at one of Ryder's 850 U.S. locations as drivers, technicians, logistics employees, or other support functions.

To continue its job outreach efforts, Ryder posted open positions on Monster.com. Ryder also joined with other companies to place an ad in USA Today offering employment opportunities for those displaced by the hurricanes.

Employee Relief Efforts

A team of Ryder HR personnel and volunteers has been operating the Ryder Employee Emergency Help Desk, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Utilizing the Ryder Employee Relief Fund donations, which are also matched by the Company, Ryder has provided more than 90 grants and a variety of other requests have been fulfilled for services such as food, clothing, counseling, temporary shelter and transportation. Ryder continues to provide assistance to meet the needs of impacted employees.

Prior to impact, teams and supplies were staged for deployment into impacted areas to help employees and customers begin recovery of equipment, facilities and business operations. Ryder locations in Jackson, Miss., Beaumont, Texas, and Lake Charles and Baton Rouge, La., continue to operate as distribution centers for ice, water, food and other supplies such as generators, first aid supplies, flashlights, batteries, chainsaws, propane, gas grills, blankets and tarps. Additional Ryder staff from other regions was mobilized to support the relief efforts. Ryder worked with affected employees to find temporary housing and secured RVs and hotel rooms.

Security Support

The security of Ryder employees, vendors and customers working in and around the severely impacted areas was also a primary concern. Security Team resources reached and completed a preliminary assessment of all targeted locations. Ryder implemented appropriate security measures at the highest priority locations and security escorts accompany our drivers as needed.

Other Disaster Relief Contributions

The following anecdotes highlight collaborative efforts made by Ryder, its employees and customers, and the community in general to assist victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

* Food & Supply Drives -- More than 100 Ryder locations across the U.S. organized donation drives to collect non-perishable supplies and deliver them to affected employees and customers, as well as general donations for people affected by the disaster. * Miami-Dade County (Florida) Commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz Convoy -- Six trucks were donated to Metro Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz to assist his efforts to collect food items and supplies in Miami-Dade County and deliver them into the impacted areas of the Gulf Coast. * Motorcycle Ride For Relief -- Ryder's Davie (Florida) Used Truck Center location held the "Ride for Relief," a motorcycle (and car) motorcade and lunch fundraiser for Ryder employees, families and friends, on September 25th. The "Ride for Relief" raised approximately $3,000 for the Ryder Emergency Relief Fund and the American Red Cross. * North Carolina Convoy -- Five Ryder drivers assigned to a customer location in Apex, N.C. drove to New Orleans with water, food, and other emergency items that were donated to the American Red Cross. The drivers delivered the supplies to a staging area located approximately one hour outside of New Orleans. * Detroit-Area Convoy -- On September 9th, four Ryder drivers and two tractor trailers from Highland Park, Mich. arrived in Heidelberg and Quitman, Miss., with 100 skids of relief supplies for hurricane victims. The African Methodist Episcopal Church distributed food and supplies to affected neighborhoods. Partners with Ryder in organizing the convoy were Big Boy Restaurants, United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 1A, UAW Local 600 Transportation Workers, the African American Episcopal Church in Louisiana and Mississippi, Wayne County (Mich.) Executive Robert Ficano and Ford Motor Co. Other convoy elements moved on to Louisiana. * Atlanta-Area Fundraiser -- Ryder's Shared Services Center in Alpharetta, Ga. held a bake sale and raised nearly $1,000 for the American Red Cross. * Fort Worth-Area Fundraiser -- Employees at Ryder's Transportation Management Center (TMC) in Alliance, Texas raised more than $2,250 for the Ryder Employee Relief Fund. * Donated Sales Commissions -- Several of Ryder's sales representatives joined together to donate their sales commissions earned in September to the Ryder Emergency Relief Fund. * Delivery of 100 Mattress and Blankets -- Ryder donated a truck to deliver 100 mattresses, donated by Vitafoam, and 100 new blankets, donated by Gillespie Furniture, to hurricane evacuees. * Pet and Animal Supplies -- Pets & Animals in Distress volunteers from Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano, Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce, Fla., along with two volunteers from Orlando, loaded relief supplies to help Katrina pet victims in the Mandeville, La. and Perlington, Miss. Gulf Coast areas. The Meow Mix Company, Pedigree and Nutro Dog Food companies generously donated several thousand pounds of dog and cat food for these areas to provide relief to our four-legged friends. Ryder's Fort Pierce, Fla. location donated the 24-foot truck to help pick up and deliver all the food to the Katrina animal victims in the Gulf Coast. * Delivery of Supplies from Illinois -- Ryder of Rockford, Ill. donated a tractor-trailer to North Park Church of Christ to deliver 12 skids of food and cleaning supplies to hurricane victims in Long Beach, Miss. North Park Church of Christ collected the more than $11,000 worth of food and supplies. * Delivery of Supplies from New York -- Ryder donated a truck to transport hurricane relief donations from Montour Falls, N.Y. to a staging center in Jackson, Miss. About Ryder

Ryder is a Fortune 500 company providing leading-edge transportation, logistics and supply chain management solutions worldwide. Ryder's stock is a component of the Dow Jones Transportation Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. For more information about Ryder System, Inc., visit http://www.ryder.com/.

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements and information included in this presentation are "forward-looking statements" under the Federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Accordingly, these forward-looking statements should be evaluated with consideration given to the many risks and uncertainties inherent in our business that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause such differences include, among others, our ability to obtain adequate profit margins for our services, our inability to maintain current pricing levels due to customer acceptance or competition, customer retention levels, unexpected volume declines, loss of key customers in the Supply Chain Solutions (SCS) business segment, unexpected reserves or write-offs due to the deterioration of the credit worthiness or bankruptcy of certain customers in our SCS business segment, the possibility that changes in customers' business environments will limit their ability to commit to long-term vehicle leases, changes in market conditions affecting the commercial rental market or the sale of used vehicles, increased competition from vehicle manufacturers and large service providers, higher borrowing costs and possible decreases in available funding sources caused by adverse changes in debt ratings, changes in accounting assumptions, adequacy of accounting accruals, changes in general economic conditions, unexpected reserves or losses due to the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on our operations and the economy, availability of heavy- and medium-duty vehicles, increases in fuel prices, availability of qualified drivers, our ability to create operating synergies in connection with our acquisitions, our ability to manage our cost structure and changes in government regulations, including regulations regarding vehicle emissions, drivers' hours of service and security regulations issued by the Department of Homeland Security. The risks included here are not exhaustive. New risks emerge from time to time and it is not possible for management to predict all such risk factors or to assess the impact of such risks on our business. Accordingly, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.