Night Dispatch: The bane of my existence.

Nicely said.

 

That's what I thought?? Does his company train their drivers or just throw them out there and hope for the best? Now I'm afraid to drive knowing there are drivers out there who don't know how to shift a thousand pounds.

 

That's easy.. open the big doors and start dumping.

Oh. wait. That won't help the steers.

I'd normally say something here about moving your girl friend to the back, but that's mean, and I don't know you well enough to be THAT big an... jerk

but yeah,check your motor carrier's atlas for the weight limits by state. I saw a chart the other day.. some are still 12,some are 12.5,and I think I saw one or two at 14,000 (tires permitting,of course)

As for dispatch.. if you have one who understands, he's probably an ex-trucker. The good side is, he understands and can help in some situations. The bad side is, he understands and you can't BS him as easily.

My dispatcher has never seen the inside of a truck. Actually, they're referred to here as "Driver Managers". Essentially, they are the go-between between driver and logistics/Customer Service. It's a thankless job, and not all that easy. Kinda like customer service at the phone company- EVERYBODY is always mad at you.

In any event, asking any dispatcher about the truck is.. well, not worth it. If I have a problem I can't solve, I'll call breakdown. They may not be drivers, but they know which end of the truck the grease comes out of.

 

Yes, but if you act kind of humble, any driver at a truckstop could help you figure this out in about two minutes. They also are supposed to teach this at truckdriving school. I've helped van drivers shift their load many times as the lever sometimes doesn't work the way it says in the operators manual.


Another thing....if your steers are 12,500, the scale guy's probably not going to say anything. If anyone got a ticket for 12,500, I'd sure like to hear about it.

 

No, I didn't read every post. Sorry about that. It would help if you said all this the first time. Since they leave you no options, I wouldn't fill my tanks until I scale. But you know that now.

 

Back to the original point, Venture, I have come to the same conclusion about nite/weekend dispatch. I dont know how many times ive been told to call in to my FM in the morning! HuH? What good does that do? Especially when you need an answer NOW! Pretty much useless form what I have found. Be better to just pay the drivers more and fire the bunch!

 

That's true. What I found to be the real issue was you were trying to get dispatched when your truck was illegal. I could just imagine the legal battles that would come out if your were in an accident and overweight. And you wouldn't come out very pretty either. I don't think I would have run with it in today's world. I would make the load legal. But that's me and I'm not under any gun.