Dispatcher in training seeking advicce

Being a dispatcher is a hard thing to nail down and give advice for. This coming from a driver 1st, then a dispatcher/planner, and then a driver once more. Honesty is important. The good guys will only call/talk to you when necessary...otherwise, they just putter down the road doing what they are supposed to to. They sub-par drivers will be on the phone all the time, complaining, saying they aren't making money or won't go here or won't go here, and for that there really isn't a lot you can say. As a dispatcher you have to deal with the good and the bad and sort of find a middle road. You are there to help them, whatever it may be. Sometimes, a sub-par driver can be molded into a good one with some trust, honesty and some coaching if needed. That just benefits all involved. It would be nice if a lot of the "professionals" out there just left that trucker-stereotype in the truck when they interact with others...I steered clear of the driver lounges (I know, coming from a dude with SuperTrucker in his name, tisk tisk) It helps if you've driven a truck before yourself, that always gets you bonus points. When I planned a fleet, a lot of guys said I was running them too hard. As a dispatcher/planner...I would rather be told "You are planning too aggressively" than not enough miles. One key thing to help you do your job better is if your drivers can communicate any issues well in advance (i realize sometimes crap just happens in real-time and we deal) but HOS issues, miles for OTD, etc...Hopefully I'm not rambling.

Hard to issue advice also because I don't know the methods for keeping your guys running...will you be planning/getting the freight, or will another person be planning? I'll be following this thread and see how it's going.

Good luck!

 

Only being a driver that just starting out but old enough to know and I don't mean this in a bad way but how can you tell others how to run if you have never done so?
If you can't drive maybe see if you can do a drive along with someone or 2 for a few weeks just to see from the drivers side how things go. Then I think you would have a better under standing from that side to help do your job better.

Some people do not give out "their" feelings like running to hard or not enough so I would say ask them "how are the runs? Just right, need more or need less"? Let them tell you instead of guessing. I would also ask this a few times a year as things change and again they may not tell you.

Good luck
Dave ----

 

get a r

get a roll a deck....you can find phone numbers in 2 seconds