How long do you get put on hold with no response from your FM?

My dispatchers fine out pretty quick what happens if they attempt to ignore me. Especially if I'm empty, and am trying to make a plan for the rest of my day. If I don't get some kind of response to the QC within 20 minutes, I'm on the phone. If I get voicemail, I hang up and call back. If I'm put on hold, I hang up and call back. Doesn't take a dispatcher long to figure out that sending a message out will shut me up for a while. A simple "Gonna be in a meeting until x:00" or "looking for a load for ya, hang tight" or even "boards are cleared until morning, check in around 8:00." Theses are messages that let me figure out what I'm gonna do next. Do I make a run to a truckstop to take care of driver maintainence? Do I sit tight and wait for a load?

It comes down to communication. If drivers don't communicate with dispatch, dispatch doesn't know what the drivers' plans are, and vice versa. The most important lesson I've drilled into many a dispatcher's head has been the vital need for communication! If the load planners are screwing up, let me know! I know there isn't a ###### thing I can do about it, but at least I also know my dispatcher is trying to get something done, and the best thing I can do is wait and not jiggle his/her elbow in the meantime. Now I know who to blame for my sitting, and it ain't my dispatcher! If there is no freight until morning, let me know! Now I know I can go relax for a bit after running like a demon, and not have to worry about missing a load assignment! Just like if something happens on the road, I let dispatch know as soon as I can. So they know if I need to be rescheduled, repowered, whatever to keep the load moving sooner rather than later.

Communication on both sides makes this job a helluva lot easier!

 

to each his own.i dont have to bother mine or drill anything into his head.Once i am empty and send in my available hours i have left its pretty simple to figure out what i want to do.

 

This is the exact point of this. If we're gonna be late they wanna know. If we breakdown they wanna know. They wanna know instantly as soon as they can about everything. But when we get empty and are waiting on an assignment, you may sit there for hours on end waiting by the QC for an assignment.