Chatted with an “ole dispatcher”

I have a decent dispatcher. We are fairly friendly when we see each other in the morning and he is popular with the other drivers.

Every now and then I have to remind him that I drive a truck and not a time machine, but a realistic working relationship with your dispatcher will determine how long you last at the company. We have people that will intentionally screw with dispatch or management and manipulate a situation enough to make it look like they tried, without actually trying.

I agree with some of the other comments. Never ever delete your text message thread with your dispatcher or terminal manager/shift supervisor. Take pictures of everything. New damage to equipment, the inside of my trailer to prove I am out of room for more pickups, truck restriction signs for residential deliveries, hell, I'll even take a photo of my fifth wheel each morning to prove the jaws are locked in case I drop a trailer.

In the end, what matters is that you can prove who is right when a situation goes bad. You'd be insane to assume that your dispatcher will step up and go "yeah, I jacked this one up". Most will throw you under the bus.

 

Glad I work for a company that doesn’t set appointments just windows and even then they don’t really give an F if it isn’t one of the main three customers.
This is how it works “I’m gonna be late” “what’s the eta” “eh 3ish hours after the apt” “I’ll put you in for 4 hours after” “thanks”
I drive a truck. I don’t control weather traffic or mechanical failure. If these places can make me wait hours to unload I can make them wait hours to get their ####.

edit:I do not advise ANYONE. To do this, my situation is unique I’m not even required to haul back hauls but I do to help out.
I pick up from a few direct customers and deliver their goods and that track record is 98% on time.

 

Being at a smaller rural barn, we don't have the kinds of problems mentioned here. Dispatch generally knows where we are and how much room we have. If there's a reason we can't get something done, we call in and say so, and they make it work with another driver or roll it over to the next day.

There's Reason 553,798,231 I'll Never Go Back OTR: Having my paycheck and work history held hostage by an incompetent dispatcher.

 

Management and dispatch make the promise to customers and then pass the blame on to drivers who cant do the impossible...poop travels downhill, always has..

 

Wow, that’s sad. I would never work for or own a company like that. Dishonest people have no place in a great company.

 

On that note, I've probably become one of those people apathetic to firing at this point. I mean if it's over something I know I had no control over and nobody died, I give them the mutual middle finger after the sacking and get out of there before any blows are thrown(been in the klink a few times a decade ago. Better to just channel all the anger into an escape run). Take a breather for awhile and then decide what to do about money later.

 

You would have gotten even better loads if you would have called her Young lady instead of mom, Lol.

 

Swift has a bit of a different set up. They split things between a Driver Leader and a Planner. Driver Leader is supposed to be your advocate and, in my experience, they have been.
In the year and a half I've been with Swift, I've had 4 Driver Leaders. Three, including my current, have been great. One was kind of a jerk. So, after just a couple of weeks, I asked and was switched back to my former Driver Leader.
The guy that was a jerk I had 2 incidents with. They had given me a long load, about 2200 miles. However, according to their estimate, I wouldn't be able to make it to the receiver on time. They were expecting I'd be late. Well, I actually managed to make good time are make the delivery on time. Except, I screwed up at the very last. I had stopped for the night about 30 miles West of receiver. Without realizing it, in that 30 miles, time zones changed from Central to Eastern. So, when I showed up the next morning, thinking I was 30 minutes early, I was actually 30 minutes late. They took me with no late fee, so it wasn't an issue. Except, that driver leader, instead of any acknowledgement that I had managed to get there basically ontime when they expected I'd be late, he fussed at me for being 30 minutes late and screwing up the time zone. Other time he and I got into an argument, over the phone, about trip planning stuff. He expected me to be fine with showing up at a place to get loaded or unloaded when my 14 hour was almost expired and then use safe haven afterward. My position was, and is, If I don't have enough time on my 14 to get there, allow 2 hours to get loaded or unloaded (2 hours is how long it is supposed to take, not how long it usually does) and the get to a safe place, I don't have enough time and have to wait till I have more time. Deal is to me, I gotta plan where I shouldn't have to use safe haven. If the place takes longer than they should and I have to use safe haven, that's what it's there for. But, shouldn't plan on using when I know I didn't have the time to begin with.
Anyway, I was glad to get back to my old driver leader afterward. Not sure if that guy is even around anymore.
I trust my current driver leader and she's been good to me. We aren't forced dispatch. When they send us a load, we can commit to it or reject it. My driver leader, with my permission, will occasionally commit me to a load before I've had a chance to look, at it. Always been good loads (by my definition, which is alittle different than most and she knows the kinds of loads I like) and she snagged them for me before someone else ended up with them.
Anyway, I'm glad Swift has the system it does and I think it seems to work and I haven't had any of the normal dispatcher issues you guys seem to have experienced, except for the one jerk driver leader.