Starting a Dispatch company. Please provide Do and Dont's as a Dispatch company.

From my past experiences with dispatchers, get the #### info right when forwarding it to drivers. That means the correct address, an actual working phone number, correct pickup numbers, etc. Used to irk me to death when my company would give me load info that was no good, then I’d have to make a bunch of phone calls to try cleaning up their mess.

 

Really want the best suggestion - be a driver then an owner first to understand what the heck is going on.

 

You might be looking for replies from drivers only but I'll give a perspective as a compliance manager at a brokerage..

Don't lie or be even a bit shady about the fact that you're an independent dispatcher working with multiple O/O. Be ready to provide your own insurance and proof of power of attorney for that carrier.

My company views this as brokering without proper authority, as you do not own the truck and you are arranging for the transport of freight on regulated trucks. We focus on asset direct so we can build relationships with the drivers, if we wanted another party involved we would use a licensed and bonded broker with proper insurance.

I had a situation today where one of our carriers was outed as an independent dispatcher. They responded to our bid request aimed at their company (they have 5 trucks). After asking for a confirmation of the rate con, they responded that they had received it but needed to fill out a carrier packet for the driver that would be taking the load. We wanted an owned asset, do not allow independent dispatchers and promptly revoked the load and put the dispatchers own trucks on DNU due to deceptive practices.

The driver was then stuck without the load because his dispatcher was not honest with us. If the dispatcher had been honest from the start of their onboarding then the situation never would have occurred, as they would never have been onboarded. That's a crappy situation for the driver.

Some brokers won't care, some will. Make sure to be honest up front.