Dispatching Companies

I've been doing superficial research into the concept of freight dispatching as a stand alone business. I would like to hear the input of the prospective market about what the major roadblock is in making the independent dispatcher fail. My assumption is that finding owner operators/small fleet owners who are in the "sweet spot" between being able to dispatch themselves and having their own team of employed dispatchers is hard to find, and potentially a saturated market.

I did try to research this through the search functions before asking, but mostly just found disgruntled drivers who have had bad experiences. I feel like if outsourcing and bad service is the common reaction to "why not hire a dispatcher?" then the opportunity for an attentive and ethical business is great.

I have no experience in this field, and appreciate you all taking the time to read this and offer me advice. Thanks in advance.

 

Are you saying that having someone dispatch for you comes in handy? I don't have any background driving, and don't plan to start, so I'm unclear as to what you mean by "it comes in handy." If you could clarify that for me.

I'm glad to hear you're successfully running your own truck as well as working as a dispatcher for other owners.

 

No, I work from home on a DoD contract. I am not affiliated with shipping or trucking at all.

Dispatching is interesting to me because it represents a low overhead opportunity to start learning the industry. The opportunity to be able to use profits from dispatching to eventually be able to create my own authority and have a few trucks of my own would be the high end of the spectrum in ultimate goals, where the low end would be dispatching for a couple of trucks as an additional revenue source, and anything in between being available as I learn about the industry.

 

I agree completely. The only thing I could offer anyone right now is the ability to minimize time spent on load boards. Efficiency won't be immediate and certainly won't be at the level of someone who has spent years learning the craft, but as with most businesses, if time is a commodity then paying someone to do the more time intensive tasks is worth while. If the gross decrease in profit from my inexperience is less than the gross increase from time saved then I become a positive expected value investment.

This, of course, is my unproven theory, and I don't have the background to know what landmines of logic I'm skipping over. This is why I posted here, to understand whether or not the course of action is realistic, and what prerequisite systems do I need to put in place before trying to dive in.

For example, if there was a carrier who hired dispatchers on a contract basis, perhaps splitting their percentage of the load, say 2-3% due to the fact that most of the leg work is done for them, then that would be a great place to go to start getting my sea legs and understanding how to best help O/O's when I choose to leave this make believe carrier.