And as far as the debate about their pay....all i can say is that my family did fine on what they paid my rookie year and the following year. Enuff that my wife could stay home and raise our daughter, buy a nice suv, and a nice house. How often does that happen? Now with the economy...I have no idea...I'm not there anymore. Refering to the flat division.

__________________

"Knock the ####### bottom out!"
"Life after DAC."

Catfishlady, You paint a great synopsis of the inside of a dispatch office, but here is how it works at most companies. Driver A would not be around for long at any company these days. You have dispatchers that are "objective" and dispatchers that are "subjective". You want the objective one, meaning the dispatcher that puts a load on you because you are the closest one or the one most available for it. The subjective one will let the currently available driver sit while he pushes the delivery time back for the load so that is "boy" or his "Boyz" can take the load. This is how it really works in those boiler room finance rooms. Its disgusting. If drivers ever think there dispachers are scewing with them, they are. Tread lightly on these very sensitive critters as they have enourmous control over your income, and they know it. Would you want to be nice to drivers if you were sitting in those toxic rooms taking home $350.00 a week.

I've deffinately had my back scratched a time or two....but I never complained and always got it done on time. I could see both angles you both paint...I was just always glad not to be in that office.

__________________

"Knock the ####### bottom out!"
"Life after DAC."

Well for one. The FM's don't dispatch you at maverick. The CSR's do.

__________________
My childhood dream of becoming a truck driver turned into a nightmare!

Now you know as well as I do that even though thats true...and they do good at spreading miles out...you've gotten your back scratched and caught a good load......I know there were times I got 'taken care of.'

__________________

"Knock the ####### bottom out!"
"Life after DAC."

No doubt. I had a swap a while back that I took a beating on miles. My FM said please do this for me and I will owe you big.

__________________
My childhood dream of becoming a truck driver turned into a nightmare!

I agree. And I heard a few times from older drivers on #### thats now on my DAC as an accident, "I wouldn't have reported that."
-Well it ain't my truck....but now who's screwed...the stuff hit my DAC before anyone even looked at it.
The funniest was after I scraped my bumper, the office people were walking their circles before they put the track in for them, and gave me this dirty ### look. Then went around again and pointed up and down to my truck. I look in the review and here comes a suite and tie guy in my blindspot (I hadn't been there that long)...acting like he's lookin at the truck next to mine and writing down my numbers. I called my fleet manager and told him, 'These office jockeys out here walking around are reporting me for somehting I already reported." He laughed and said dont worry about it they'll see you already reported it. If your honest, you dont have to hide....you just cant get a job later.

__________________

"Knock the ####### bottom out!"
"Life after DAC."

Subjective/Objective...the point is actually still the same. We ALL have a job to do and they're all the same. FM's are judged by OTD %, Mileage %, Hometime % and overall driver productivity...and your job depends on it. Oh and customers do not like to move appt times around, they see it as "an unorganized organization" when they have to do that...believe it or not. And you are incorrect about "thinking" that the dispatchers are screwing with you, if you actually sit and think about it, you're not the only driver on their fleet so they have MANY issues to deal with in one day...and there's never enough time to go through them all.

DBL's, fm's, Csr's, dispatchers, they all come together. Diffrent titles at different companies. Shippers and receivers have blocks that drivers can be scheduled into. Trust me. Dispatchers will bs a driver to run when he shouldnt because they want to get their percentages higher for the quarter/week. So they will tell the driver to hurry up and get there, ITS A HOT LOAD!! Ive had dispatchers that couldnt do long division. Or even short. Most dispatch offices dont run like well oiled machines. And I would be embarrassed to say to someone "why, Im a dispatcher. Its worse then saying your a recruiter.

You are correct on the time blocks however you fail to realize that the company that you (and I use this word as a figure of speech) work for is NOT the only company that is carrying their freight. The timeframe could be filled because...believe it or not, ALL the carriers showed for their appointment times. I know, this is a huge ideal to comprehend but there are drivers who take pride in their performance, barring any type of breakdown or hold up from the shippers end.

You're stereotyping dispatchers and I find it difficult to digest because I, for one, HAVE been a dispatcher and I'm not embarrassed to admit this. I'm PROUD to have had the opportunity to learn from BOTH sides of the fence and I've made really great friends who were drivers/contractors on my fleets. Should I be embarrassed because they are my friends and they're, GASP, truck drivers? I think not, especially since my husband, with whom I thank the Man Upstairs for everyday as he was the man I prayed for every night since I was 10, was a driver at the company I worked for.

Maybe the drivers you know only use their telephones as a means of communication instead of the Qualcomm where they can tell their dispatchers "Hey, I don't have the hours" or "Hey, will the company pay my fine if I run over my DOT mandated hours?". Trust me, they put that on the Qualcomm and BOOM, the "pond scum" dispatchers will back off. Don't forget that the dispatchers fleet safety record is also part of their percentages/numbers that are looked at by their superiors...and the safety department.

Dispatchers, FM's/DM's are not "out to get you", yes there are some that are the scum of the earth but I guarantee there are more good ones than bad. If you've had issues with 90% of YOUR dispatchers then maybe it's not just "them" that's the problem. A positive attitue, open mind, honesty and understanding go a long way with BOTH parties.

Each "job" in transportation is unique and should be respected because we all can't comprehend what is involved in every aspect of each "section". Maybe instead of having a negative opinion about a specific "section" we should learn a little more about it, which could provide a more positive impact on not only the jobs that we do but the people we are learning from because hey, they may not understand what you do either. We can't claim to "know it all" because if we didn't learn something new, we really need to find another occupation that could help us be more rounded, intellectually.

Now...TRUST ME when I say that a dispatcher would love to teach you a little about their job, then maybe the drivers could understand what it is THEY are going through each day. Dispatchers who have not been truck drivers would love to learn, although it may be out of their comfort level, what it is like to be out in a truck for a week. That's all it would take for them to have a higher respect for what you, the American Truck Driver, do for a living and what you must sacrifice to do the "job" that you do.