Dealing with Dispatch

I've been at my current company for about 2 years now and it seems just recently I have figured out a way to deal with my dispatchers..put my foot down and push back. I wont BS you, I work for ODFL and outside of dispatch and occasional freight that requires 2 people (good luck getting that helper!) it's not a bad gig if you want that daily LTL work.

For a small barn though dispatch is ridiculous. Too many chiefs not enough indians. Biggest problem is that they do not communicate with each other so it's not uncommon for 2 trucks to show up to the same pick up. Outside of that they're so bent on numbers they often ask the impossible. Today for example I usually do a stop or 2 in a pup, then come back, hook to my city trailer and do my run. For me to do that run and get everybody done before they close, if there is 10 stops I have to leave by about 10-10:30. This morning dispatch gave me 3 stops at 7:30 and 2 of them were NJ Transit bus terminals for tires--you can only roll out 60 150 lb tires so fast, I'm not getting myself hurt. So I'm enroute to the 2nd terminal and it's already 11 and I get "how it's goin"...which is the code word for "hurry up" I typed back "bus tires, it's goin'"...When I'm 15 min out from that stop I get a msg "434138 next"...Ok that's my run which should have been given to another driver at this point but they didn't think it through, didn't realize I had bus tires on the load and now they're praying for me to hurry and get done so I can get back. I typed back "gonna be awhile" which should have been good enough to have them think "look at the time and he didn't even arrive himself yet"...I get "it's 10 easy stops"...Are ya kidding?! I didn't make it back until almost 1 PM and they finally gave that truck away and gave me a few volume runs.

The problem is all they see is numbers. The other day I had a pup with 7 skids in it, why the hell are you sending me a PU with 9 skids? Where do you think I'm putting them. This happens constantly so you kind of have to stand your ground. With that I typed back "Should I strap them to the hood?".....In the beginning I did A LOT of things I shouldn't have. Over weight many times, no liquor stamp, out of hours..now that I've realized one way or another my CDL is my career I have to kind of be an a--hole right back to them and if you don't like me? That's fine, I don't have a ton of respect for someone telling me how to do my job that's never been in a truck before in their life anyway.

So my question is this: Having said all of that, man I get heated. I do let it bother me and I really don't like driving around feeling that way. How do you deal with that? What do the veterans do to let dispatch know it's a dead end talking to a guy that way. Yesterday I logged out for lunch, 3 minutes into it I get a message "Mepco looking for you"..I typed back "Keep looking, on lunch." The fact that you send me messages the minute I stop in hopes that you'll piss me off enough to just get to the next stop is ridiculous.

I'm looking into getting a TWIC and running tankers for my uncle but in the meantime this is the job. So how do you guys get a point across to a dispatcher so this crap doesn't happen in the 1st place...am I doing the right thing being a ####### right back to them?

 

Thanks for the good word Keith.

I feel I'm beginning to learn a bit too, I just wish it didn't have to come to that. Like I was saying in the beginning I was wet behind the ears, over weight? It's ok I'll do it...now? Take it yourself lol.

I think long term I would be better off putting my skills and credentials towards different kind of truck work but for right now I just have to deal. Last week I was in a 40ft trailer and it was a summer school. There was no way in hell I was making it into that area with a trailer. I called the school from outside and when I said I was in a trailer the woman flipped out saying she told dispatch 3 times it needed a box truck. When I sent a message that I couldn't do it, it turned into a message war.."my map is showing me it's an open space"..."Why can't you get around school buses"..."You can get it off and carry it in"..Finally I just typed "No" and left. They had me playing with the 2 way for 15 minutes while I was trying to get a trailer out of a school lot that I should have never pulled into in the 1st place.

When I got back I got "You can't make those decisions on your own."...If you put me in an unsafe area and rely on some google map to see where I am instead of actually listening to what your driver is telling you, I can promise you I'm always going to make those decisions. If I get written up for that I'd call regional management--I think I'm done playing games with these idiots.

 

LOL, I'm using that tomorrow!