Ask A Dispatcher anything

No. My work ethic dictates that I act differently. And I never would have thought about doing it when I was driving. But now I see a different picture since I came into the office. Make sure you're worth keeping, though, before trying it. And your mileage may vary depending on company and location.

 

A couple of reasons: The 1st would be that the load is set up, and they have to put on a truck. So they temporarily put it on you until they can figure out a better truck to put it on. The 2nd reason (and probably more the reason) is that, even though you are going to be late or have bad hours, you are still the best truck for a load. A big thing that a lot of drivers don't realize is that carriers are contracted to do certain loads or a certain amount of loads...especially when dealing with shippers like Tyson, Cargill, Kraft, etc. Regardless of whether we have a driver to cover the load, we have to accept the load or pay a penalty. To many of those, and we lose a contract. That's a big no-no. And it is better financially to have you be a few hours or even a couple of days late with a load than to broker that load out or refuse it. It's a constant game of Russian roulette. Sometimes you get the empty chamber; sometimes you get the bullet.

 

We don't treat them any differently, to be honest. We obviously watch the new drivers more closely, but we don't micromanage you. If we see you getting yourself into trouble, we will call you and help you out. Otherwise, you do you.

 

Correct. We do both, and there is no "off-time" for us. We might only be in the office during specific hours, but we are 24/7 when it comes to our drivers. There has been more than once when I have been on the phone at 11 pm with a buyer trying to clear a driver to leave a shipper with 15 cases short. It's the buyers that are the worst...hands down.