Can you provide an example of rude dispatchers, shippers/recievers

I'll have to remember that one.

Right. It's how you present yourself. If you come in smelling like you haven't showered in a week, wearing a dirty tank top and shorts. You aren't going to get any respect in return.

Main problem is many drivers are like this, thus giving the good drivers a bad name. So we all get labeled as 'the same.'

Just smile and be polite to them.

 

The biggest ongoing thing is that virtually every shipper/receives has you talk to them through some kinda tiny glass window, like you're in a ghetto convenience store or something. Often times you need to lean down or bend just to speak/hear through the hole in the glass.

Then of course they don't even acknowledge you until they're ready. You might wait just feet away from them, staring right at them, and they'll fuss around with paperwork as if you weren't even there.. you could set yourself on fire and I doubt they'd even acknowledge you.. not even "hello" or "be with you in a minute" until they're ready for you and call "next"

 

Actually, receivers for the most part are pretty decent. However, you will run into a bad apple if you do this long enough.

Example:

A couple of years ago I was making a delivery and the first thing that came out of the receivers mouth was, "Are you as stupid as the last driver that was here"?

At this point another dock worker walked up and was present... And then the receiver in charge says, "Don't you look good"... In a sarcastic, derogatory way(I was wearing new clothes, boots and my new cowboy hat).

At this point, I used humor... I said, "If you think I look good, I'd hate to see the women you go with"...

He stomped off, and I asked the other worker there what it was like to work for that guy. He laughed, and said..."It certainly has it's moments"...sarcastically.

 

Dispatcher's/Broker's need to get there load's covered and will do/say anything to do it. If your honest with me I'll cover the load to save there behind not to mention it make's them look good, anyhow, if they lie to me and get rude, "I HANG UP THE PHONE, PARK "MY" TRUCK" and go home. They know I provide service to there customer's and there customer's alway's ask for me. And usually by the end of the day, Im getting a call/dispatched for the next day.

 

I've run to rude shipper's/reciever's once in a great while BUT, I go with the flow, meaning, I'll do what they ask for long as they show respect/professionalism. In other's word's "you have to show that your a people's person", and usually they come around.

 

what I do for a living is different. and I do dispatch part time.
examples of bad dispatching where I am...(small local private company)
having empty trucks pass each other on the highway, rather than keeping track of where your trucks are and keeping them loaded and hauling.
releasing drivers early to home, then call one driver on phone and assign the last 5 loads on the book to cover dispatcher's ### for releasing the others, so he/she can go home early too. (never goes over radio, so no one knows till that last driver get's in and see's what happen)
singling out and holding crap runs to a specific driver, regardless of who the next free truck/driver is. (which also causes a late problem to hold the crap run for XX driver)
skip or bump loads, not tell anyone, then blame the driver when company man calls wanting to know why skipped or late.
does not keep track of where trucks/drivers are, and time it takes to load/unload and drive time, so the runs that are for specific time you are not late.

bad dispatching makes all of us look bad. the truck company, the driver, the dispatch, and the client/customer. makes it difficult for drivers to do their job and be professional when dealing with customers/clients.

where I work, is a matter of they just dont care, dont bother. they see it as not their problem, they just there to collect a paycheck, couldn't care less about the loads or clients. even less about the drivers doing the job they dispatching them out to.

 

Yep, you push hard, drive through the night, don't stop to eat, try and hold bodily functions as long as you can to try and make up a minute here or a minute there cause this is a "hot load for a valued customer."

You get there, check in at security, park the truck and run to the receiving office. You get to the window. The receiver knows you're there, knows you are there to make a delivery but will purposely avoid eye contact with you and will try to find anything she (more common with women) can to keep you waiting. She will talk with a co-worker about reality-TV, file papers, walk back forth across the office. This can go for quite a while until they are satisfied you've received their message that you are a subservient form of a human being and they will tend to you when and only when they feel like it.

Unfortunately, this is very common.

 

Main problem I have with dispatch is they will give me a load and delivery time but totally forget about the deadhead miles in that time. For instance I get a load with 600 loaded miles and only have 14 on duty hours left in the next 2 days. Dispatcher says it should be plenty of time, totally ignoring the fact the load has an additional 200 deadhead miles attached to it and couldn't understand why I refused it until I explained it to him.

Shippers and receivers generally don't give me a hard time. I like to think it's my winning personality, but my friends tell me I just look intimidating. maybe I'm just lucky.