USA Truck Dispatchers

You are forming a relationship with your fleet manager. He is testing you to see what he can get away with. Draw some lines if he can not meet them quit. If you deliver loads on time and do not have multiple issues everyday he will value you and meet your demands, rather than see you go.

 

As I've stated numerous times and will state again.....relationship is KEY! Your relationship with your FM can make or break you. I'm living proof of it. I had just over 2600 miles last week coming off of home time. This week I'm sitting at just over 3000 with a delivery tomorrow morning a few blocks from Van Buren and a day and a half to go. Included were two loads in Jersey and one in PA. I'm done to scrimping on every 15 minutes I can as I have 6 left on my 70 tomorrow.

I communicate constantly with my FM as to my hours between each load and I am very respectful. As a result, I have a preplan before I deliver 98% of the time and I generally get breaks and home time whenever I ask with no hassle. Time management is also critical. I still see too many of our drivers wasting time. Sleeping in late just because they have a window, hanging out at truck stops, etc. You have to show your dependability. I know it amazes me sometimes that I never spend an entire day in Laredo. I generally already have an assignment before many of the other drivers that have been sitting.

 

It depends on your "DA", I mean "DM". Sometimes you get a bonehead. You have to set boundaries.

 

Normally I would agree but they have been firing a lot of dispatchers lately too from what I've seen. My previous, Shea, had told me that the primary reason she was told she was being fired was too much idle time in the fleet. I don't mean engine idle time but trucks not moving. Cara, my current, has said that the reason I'm being run so hard (and my peers too I assume) is that they are trying to maximize use of available hours. Thats why they are coming down so hard on the Macro 5s and the being accurate with your departs/arrives. They are actually writing drivers up for that and firing drivers with low productivity. She said that if mgmt can prove that the driver is not getting the fleet goal for miles per week due to time management or negligence in hour reporting they can them.

I guess the high driver attrition rate is finally getting somebody's attention up top. That and wanting to streamline the overhead costs.

 

They'll have to be real careful. There's only so many people in Van Buren. They can't fire to many.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I was of the understanding it was the load planners that controlled your truck as far as loads go not the FM. I say this because one day while being a terminal rat I was in Van Buren talking to my FM, he was looking for something about my last load and looked up at me and said hey they got you loaded, I am sending the load info to your q-com now. These load planners have differing areas around the country. I just found I ran better in some parts of the country then others. I suspect the company getting tighter on the mac 5s etc etc is a result of the q-com keeping a closer watch on the hours, and preventing the drivers there that almost always violated the HOS laws from doing so anymore. I am glad the company is doing something to stop this, because it levels the playing field for the drivers that were committed to staying legal with the HOS laws.

 

To a certain extent it is the LC. However, the FM has a lot of sway over things. I just sat with mine at the palace for about 2 hours. I hear the conversations they have. One had a driver that was griping about not having enough hours to take a load even though the FM was looking at the updates and saying that between what she had today and what shed get back at midnight she could do it. Well finally, she just told her driver "Fine. Taking you off the load. Just do a restart.". When I commented on it she told me that particular driver was always out of hours for some reason or another and she suspects the driver doesn't want to drive hard. I said that it was another example of poor time management. I apparently will hit 4000 miles this week with my preplan I was just assigned and I'm scraping hours every day. I didn't even realize I had that many for the week. It caused a little stir in the pit awhile ago after the group manager noticed it. They were all "Atta boying" me and joking about me getting a top gun award. I'm just worried that safety will want to audit me again. I'm not worried about being in trouble because I absolutely run legal but it's just a PITA.

LCs assign loads but FMs that know what they are doing have considerable influence. That's why I say it's all about relationships.

 

I only had to use recapped hours after midnight a couple of times. These people over me didn't know what they were doing. I only drove about 15 to 1600 miles per week. If you didn't receive a preplan by 1600 on friday you were screwed for the weekend. I can make better working construction.

 

I'll have to agree with chemsoldier.Start out good with your dispatcher from the get go and you'll be the one he looks out for first.Don't complain about where your load is going and how many miles it is,just do your job.Dispatchers have anywhere from 75 to 100 drivers with the mega carriers.They don't have time to listen to drivers complain and nit pick about every little thing.Believe it or not they're not any better then the drivers.They don't get special treatment.There job is is to give you loads and make sure you're doing your job otherwise they're going to hear about it from there boss.In order to get decent miles you have to prove yourself to your dispatcher.Like I said don't complain,COMMUNICATION is the biggest thing.Don't be late for pick up and delivery due to your fault.If your getting unloaded and u were already spose to be at the next pick up,well that's not your fault but u need to tell your dispatcher right away so they can tell the shipper you're going to be late.Or if you're going to be late delivering due to traffic,weather,accident,just tell your dispatcher ASAP.You don't communicate makes for a very unhappy dispatcher.

 

Looking for a good Dispatcher for a small reefer fleet. any ideas or recommendations?

Freedom Runner Transportation

Rob