Qualities of a good dispatcher???

I really don't care if a dispatcher lies to me all day long if they just;

1. Keep me moving.

2. Let me sleep for a few hours once in a while.

 

HOS makes you the boss of your sleeping habits doesn't it?

 

Dispatch is actually much like driving. You have to preplan where your going. not dispatch on the spur of the moment. Never lie to your drivers, we are the ones that make your customer lies into truths.

There is alway going to be the occasion of having trucks end in in an area with little or nothing coming out. We all understand this. But when I'm sitting by a plant empty and you tell me you have no loads, then 30 minutes later another truck 60 miles out call and needs directions to a load coming out of the plant I'm empty at, this is when dispatch loose credibility. This is the one thing our dispatch does all the time drives me nuts....

Im empty at home Tehacahpi, they send a empty over from Victorville to load out of tehachapi for St Geo Utah, then take it back to the yard in Victorville. The I get dispatched to go to victorville and load out of the plant 90 miles form me , when there were loads next to where I've been sitting for 2 days at home. Or better yet pick up the preload out of the yard loose 75 dollars on the load because it was preloaded, Then they tell you don't know what pissed you off.

 

Not if you want the loads that pay.

 

Um,,,er...well...............

 

This is an interesting thread and you've gotten good input. Yeah we haven't "gotten along" to well so far" but what the heck you're asking a good question.

You're doing OD loads so it's a different world from Reefer, Dry or Bulk but the first thing is as stated NEVER lie to your board! No matter what you might think of a driver or how you like him those should not come into the equation as they are doing your work for you. He might be an arse but sometimes an arse can be your best driver!

I had one dispatcher years ago tell me that the load was rescheduled because he screwed up the delivery time by not thinking of that thing called a log book!This is in the pre computer era where dispatchers lived in two worlds. log book and whats a log book.

I did my check call with him and he finds out I'm not where he figured I was and panicked and called the cons, told him I was having a truck problem and rescheduled but didn't tell ME the lie! You know the rest of the story.

I get there tell the cons I'm here and he asked me what was wrong with the truck. Being tired I didn't catch it as it flew right over my head and told him well nothing as I looked out the window thinking I was smoking or something. He then informs me that my dispatcher called and rescheduled yesterdays appointment to today because I was in the shop! To say he wasn't a happy camper is an understatement!

Several things happened with this. We lost an account because of a "simple" lie, we lost the account because a dispatcher failed to inform the key player about the reschedule and he lied to 2 people. Me by NOT telling me needed information and a customer! He got fired and from what I understand he never worked as a dispatcher as no one would touch him!

NOT telling people in the chain things they need to know or with holding valuable information no matter how trivial is the same as lying. It's like "Not" telling the wife that she doesn't look fat in something when a friend will, even though all men know to run and hide when asked that question! Those diispatchers that "think" the driver doesn't have the "need to know" as if the world is going to stop or a trade secsert could be let out of the hat are the ones who fail with their jobs and with their drivers!

Now the BEST dispatcher I ever had when I was able to come back to my old company made sure I was on her board!

Teresa and I put almost 7 years in together and made a great team!
Her principle was to learn her drivers. By that learn how they prefer to work to their best qualities! How they drove. How they run. Where they prefer to run and this is important, I do east coast west coast and anywhere as long as there is asphalt on the ground and lines painted on it too. BUT she knows I can do mountain driving like a NASCAR driver! She knows I'll do NYC in, a well, NYC minute! She knows I'll take those loads that other drivers won't touch as long as it fits in the trailer it doesn't matter BUT she knows the 3 places I will never set foot in again!

Treat me like crap when I come in with a smile on my face and a you're the boss and you're my customer attitude then I will not haul to you ever again! You're not worth my experience! AND she knows that between 0130 to 0400 is the time I MUST be asleep! Yes I have to as if I'm sitting behind the wheel driving during that time period my chances of falling asleep behind the wheel go up! I just do not go beyond my c-clock! SCREW what the HOS says! They're guide lines anyway not set in stone you MUST drive when the lines say you can! That's when I take my 8 errr 10 now! She has no problem with it as it only takes her a few minutes to get a reschedule as what's in the trailer is not as important as whats behind the wheel!

BUT she does know I'll do everything possible NOT to be late and as with these wanna be drivers today that just can't stand the "noise" on the CB and drive with a cell or book or xm radio going, I'll know about that wreck or traffic jam and get around it thus saving my hours which are the companies hours as well! You've NEVER heard MY CB say "whats the hold up??"

A good dispatcher is one that works for HIS or HER drivers! A good dispatcher knows who really pays the bills for the company even though this old standard is fast being forgotten in this cesspool called trucking these days!

From the owner down there is ONLY one group of people who actually make the money you take home every week and that's the drivers! Not the owner not the CEO or CFO or a general manager or a dispatcher or whatever these letter crazed companies call the inner office! It's the drivers alone who make the money unless you have a printing press or a money tree!

Yes some of them are complete slobs, some have no personal hygiene, some have no respect for themselves and show none to others and some are not cut out to be in this job but some of us demand respect just by our actions in the way we dress, speak to OUR customers, treat our/your equipment and how we show a professional image to everyone we come in contact with and the way we perform our work!

But we all have one thing in common. We get freight from point A to point B!
Show us respect for the work we do, work with us and not against us unless they just can't figure it out. Then those need to go somewhere else!

But, by working as a team that thinks on the same level you'll come out with the best board in the company and the most...profitable one also! It IS all about the money and to break it down, it's your money and my money! I'm NOT in this for free as you aren't and you from what I understand have a bigger risk in your company because you're family and part owner!

Just don't think of your drivers as equipment or property and yes there are many dispatchers that think this way and even worse!

Think of them as the money makers and keep them "happy," not just satisfied as there is a difference! And think of them as humans! Yes, the truck makes money rolling but, truck driver needs home time also! Just like you!

I could keep on but I do have a tendency to ramble! I can be a hard case but having been there and done almost everything in the world of trucking from the wheel to the desk and back to the wheel you tend to absorb most of it and remember it too! AND get opinionated also!

 

I spent the bulk of my "dispatching" career with a 125 truck refrigerated carrier that ran coast to coast, hauling dry freight out and produce back. My primary area of responsibility during all those years, because of my prior brokerage background was getting the fleet back east with produce/food stuffs.

During those years working as a broker I primarily worked with independent truckers, which I had been a only a couple of years before, or permanent lease O/O's, which I also had personal experience as. So basically I had two 'customers' to keep happy; The shipper/receiver/buyer and the trucker.

When I was moved to the main office and officially became a 'dispatcher' I really didn't know, or want to know, how to treat a company driver any differently than I did the guys I had been loading up until that point, and continued to do so.

Honestly I seldom had any problems with any drivers. When I did, there was usually something else going on in the persons life that also effected their work, and let's face it, in trucking, especially long distance OTR stuff, you have to expect that.

My co-workers would ask how I could get along with the drivers so well and the thing I found interesting was that the ones asking usually didn't have a driving background. Regardless, I told them to think of and treat the drivers as internal customers. Don't behave any differently with a driver as they would our best customer and for the most part everything will be fine and work out for the best.

It's a good policy for any company to operate by IMHO.

 

Rollover, you and I got into a good discussion on another thread, I enjoy reading your posts and value your thoughts and opinions. So don't think I'm picking on you when I disagree with your statement above.

Trucking is a team effort, no single person or group is solely responsible for the revenue stream. The drivers are a huge and important part of the process, but in a gross over simplification of the process, without the dispatcher the driver has no direction, with out a sales force the dispatcher has no freight to handle and with out the owner there is no capitol to fund any of it.

Problems arise within the process when any one person or group feels or acts as if they are the single most important part of the chain that makes up a successful operation.

 

And I think I mentioned the team part! Let's don't forget that "in the beginning" truckers did the whole thing from wiping the windshields to getting the payment when he delivered the load he found, paid for ,hauled, sold and unloaded to start the process all over again.

Then a man would come along and start a company and take care of his people, then the shysters came in and look at what we have now!

Yes it is a team effort but if there is no "driver" the truck will sit and rust away. With out the pipe water won't flow after the team put it in the same with the power. It all comes down to the one thing needed to make all the other parts of the team work.
We've all seen it and still see it especially with the mega fleets that have forgotten that the one thing that MUST be in this equasion of trucking are being treated like crap, taken advantage of for very slimy monetart reasons ie: per diem, schooling, leases and so on all the while forgetting that that one clog out of the machine and noone makes a penny

I agree with you but until trucking goes into the age of robotics the one thing needed to keep the wheels turning is the driver no matter how rude, crude or nice he is! He's the main tooth in the clog as others can do double and triple duty in the office. As the dispatchers of yesteryear, they found the load from his black book, he brokered the load for his company and he scheduled the appointments and the boss paid him for his service. The driver hauled the load so this all came together.

Now I'll go one step fauther in this.
Yes the driver is the most importand but the driver needs to realize that he's not a God figure as some so highly think of them selves. I've seen drivers that couldn't get their head through a barn door because his ego had it inflated well beyond his self worth! Yes I can say that I've got the experience a company needs and wants, but me I just walk in and take up my little space in a room and yes and no sir those above me and go do my job knowing that I'll get that job done safley and on time with that piece of equipment returned in as good a shape as when it was given to me unless something like what happened happens. All I have is my repuation and if you don't have that what do you have! It's not how big you are or how big that mouth is or as one poster from some other thread put it, "when he saw what biker gang I rode for they changed their tune" craopla!

Still the driver is the main part in trucking!It's time these companies remember this and get off the threat them like bottom scum way a lot of them are doing.

 

One thing I got in a big fight with dispatch over was when I put a switch on the qualcom so I could shut it off.

My response was it is my truck, I will do with it as I #### well please.

The reason is, id have my dispatcher send me a qual com when he could see I was 80 miles from final, and I was doing 68 mph that read "How long until you deliver?" Then because id be going down the road id call him instead of type a message back, and he woudl tell me to send him a message next time.

That was pretty frustrating, so what id do is once I got rolling and the system could see the truck moving, id just shut the qualcom off so he would have to call me. I would then turn it back on when I reached my destination and send a message telling them I was there.