bad company - they like to railroad employees

WEll the dispatch's job is to get the most out of the fleet. They are pushed too... They do seem to give you just enough time to get it done. Even though there is no rush in many instances... lol

 

Much of that has to do with your fleet manager. Roehl uses a one size fits all load planning formula. If you are running in bad winter weather, or in the Northeast, for example it may not work.. I had one dispatcher who would conveniently miss and fail to return calls I had about loads that did not look like they could be run legally... So she never directly asked me to run illegally, she just made herself unavailable when it came up. Every load was a hot load that had a strict schedule, even if the shipper did not have the load manufactured when I arrived to pick it up. Then I also had dispatchers that would bounce back and forth with the planners to make sure the load fit what I could actually do, even call me a couple times a day with relay options available to make sure I didn't hit any snags if it was close timing .
I am a flatbedder, and always will be-I love the folks I get to work with! When flat freight was slow I was put on a van...hated it because of the attitude of grocery w/h staff, but I was blown away by how much time I had. The formula really doesn't account for the amount of work you put into a flatbed load, so I found myself way ahead of schedule because I didn't have to scramble for fingerprinting time. I am now an O/O and seeing much more window time on my loads. Nooooooooooo problem at all, sometimes I even get there early. Everett Roehl started as a single truck O/O, and insisted his son Rick do the same before he joined the business, so Roehl's policy on office relationships with O/O's is real simple...If you like your cubicle, the O/O is right. With company drivers, however, you can sometimes find yourself backed into a corner with the wrong dispatcher. The dispatcher I had particular trouble with is no longer with Roehl btw.

 

There are a few tricks to making dispatches work for you. First when you get the preplan look to see if the pickup or delivery say Appt. If they don't then you probably have a pickup and delivery window, even if it says Live for loading and unloading. Before accepting the load find out what the pickup and delivery windows are. If your dispatcher decides to be unavailable, talk to someone else. Keep in mind your dispatcher gets the dispatch from the planner at the same time it goes to the truck.

As for the so called "Hot Loads" there is a hometime dispatcher that does the same thing. There's plenty of time on the load, but he wants it there asap. I was busting my behind to get the load delivered when he wanted it done only to find out I had an entire extra day if I needed it. He did the same thing to me after I went o/o, he was covering the o/o board over the weekend. I had already been told I had as much time as needed and the preplan told me it was a drop. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.