Ryder Systems Inc., a transportation, logistics and supply chain management company that has made a large commitment to natural gas and other alternative transportation technologies, has an initiative to penetrate U.S. shale plays, CEO Robert Sanchez said during a second quarter earnings conference call.

In response to an analyst’s question, Sanchez said Ryder has an internal initiative for developing new products that “can really penetrate the oil and natural gas area.” The initiative is centered in the Ryder Dedicated business unit and is headed by John Williford, president of Ryder’s global supply chain solutions.

There are three offerings the company is making to oil/gas operators, one of which is management logistics provider services to help oil/gas companies manage the flow of materials and production in and out of the production fields, said Williford, noting that this includes equipment repairs and maintenance.

“We combine that with Ryder Dedicated Services, and we have gotten a lot of new sales in this area, for certain kinds of customers in the fields,” he said.

The third offering is what Williford called a “small transactional trucking business” in one of the fields as an experiment in combining areas that Ryder considers its strong points. “We want to leverage our strengths,” Williford said.

“The three products are really successful right now and driving a little bit of growth in Ryder Dedicated,” he said, underscoring that the transportation/logistics company sees the energy sector as a growth opportunity.

Generally, Ryder Dedicated aims to service companies with unique equipment requirements, complex transportation or distribution challenges, and/or high-value freight that requires extra security.