Proper Way to Handle Dispatch Problems?

First of all, I am not a truck driver (yet), but my two sons recently got their cdl's and started driving together as a team. They have been driving together on their own since the last week of March 2008. So far, they have no complaints about their company except for one area, and that is dispatch times. Maybe this is normal for all companies, and if so, I guess they will just have to find a way to deal with it, but if not, I'm curious about how they should handle the problem.

The problem is, they receive their load assignment with a pickup and delivery time, but sometimes the delivery time is nearly impossible to make, you would need perfect weather conditions, no traffic jams, etc... to be able to make the deadline, but in today's case, they were supposed to pick up a load at 4 AM Pacific Time but the load wasn't ready until 7 AM PST, however, their delivery time was not pushed back to compensate for the delay. One of the other drivers at the yard told them to make sure they got their paperwork time stamped as they were leaving the yard so they would have a record of the actual time that they left and then to send a message to their dispatcher letting her know about the delay and the need for additional time, which they did, however, she only gave them 45 minutes additional, not 3 hours. So now, in order to deliver this load on time, they would have to drive 55 mph non-stop. They are in Santa Fe Springs, Ca delivering to Renton, Wa so I know the speed limit in Ca is 55, and of course there is traffic and mountains that must be dealt with, along with at least one fuel stop and a bathroom break. My point is that this delivery time is not possible.

What do you veteran drivers do in a situation like this? I know they don't want to step on anyone's toes or get on someone's bad side, but they also don't want to get a service failure for something out of their control.

Oh yeah, two hours into their trip, they got a message on the qualcomm saying they are on the late board and wanting to know if they are ok? The message was sent by their team leader or something like that. Anyway, they messaged back restating all the facts and letting him know that they had informed the dispatcher of the 3 hour delay and their request for a later delivery time. Don't know if they've gotten a reply back from him yet.

Suggestions?

 

Well, apparently dispatch is now giving them an additional hour and a half, still not enough to make it on time. They have been doing all the messaging on the qualcomm so at least they are covered that way. Their fleet manager sent them another message wanting to know why they had only gone 100 miles in 4 hours. Again, she isn't starting the clock from when they actually left the yard, they had to go fuel up, said it took 20 minutes just to wait on the fuel island, then had to fill up, check the fluids, oil was low, had to add oil, etc etc, took them 45 minutes total there, got driving and was in a traffic jam, bumper to bumper, they only went 19 miles in one hour. Apparently she doesn't believe them. Not sure why, as they have had no service failures on their record yet and have been doing a great job up to this point. Now she sent them a message asking them to call her, so we'll see how this goes. Hopefully they will be able to explain to her, although if this is her job, why doesn't she already know this stuff? In what world can you drive 55 mph non-stop for 23 hours?

 

It just doesn't make sense that you get dispatched with an impossible to meet delivery time! The boys main concern is that they are trying to keep their driving record in perfect shape so that in the event they ever want to switch companies, they will be able to do so with no bad marks against them. I don't know anything about the industry, so I don't know if a late delivery is just something that is kept in private company records or if that is something that is shown on your DAC record?

Anyway, they finally got a message on the qualcomm asking them to call their fleet manager which is also frustrating, one of them is driving, the other one is in the sleeper trying to sleep before he has to start driving and they've got all these messages coming in on the qualcomm that have to be replied to, obviously the one driving can't be using the qualcomm so the one who is supposed to be sleeping is having to reply. Then the message to call, so they call and wait on hold for about a half an hour, discuss with the fleet manager what has happened up to that point, and that the delivery time is impossible to make. She says that it is a "just in time" load and she knows that they are being dispatched tight but to do their best and keep in communication via qualcomm, if they have any unexpected delays to report them immediately. She asked when they thought they could get their and my son told her that if you took the remaining miles and divided it by 52 mph that it would be 6:30 AM, but that that didn't account for another fuel stop, bathroom break, driver switch, weigh station, traffic, mountains, etc. She said fine, she would put their delivery time at 6:30 then. So...I guess she still doesn't get it! Anyway, they'll just do their best and the load will get there when it gets there and we'll see what happens when it's late. They will keep her informed of any stops they make between now and then.

K&J, can you explain more about how if you're late, it shows, but if it's caused by a shipper, it's not charged against you? Where does it show as late? Is it just put in a computer, marked as late, but an explanation of shipper delay? Sorry, just don't understand how all this stuff works. Does that not count against you then, no matter how many times you may be late due to a shipper problem? I guess I'm just trying to figure out if the boys are stressing too much about this load and trying to be on time.

 

That is their company, and like I said before, they're totally happy except for those Conway loads that are "just in time" and you never seem to get "enough" time to deliver them. The load that I was posting about was supposed to be delivered at 6:30 AM and they finally got it there at 8:30 AM. My son said the person he dealt with there was really nice and my son handed him the paperwork and apologized for being late, and the guy said "No problem, man, you're not late" and he marked on time delivery on the paperwork.....Not sure what all the hoopla was about with the delivery times. I asked the boys if anything was said to them about being late and they said no. Maybe it shows up somewhere that they're not aware of, but they're over it and tired of worrying about it. They did their best and that's all they can do.