Accept load first, THEN scramble to deliver it?

In many cases, yes. Especially if they have a "go to guy" in the area.

 

This sounds like a small company I use to work for. They paid great but dispatch was something else.... Unload in atlanta at 8AM then they tell you dead head to the yard. You get there and wait till 5PM to get dispatched. Try to nap, Knock knock the owner waking you. when you get your dispatch pick up trailer so and so here on the yard and be in Newark NJ for a 8AM tomorrow. total miles 899 miles there. The problem is the trailer been there all day long... Learn fast how to play with Log book then, but I also learn how to say No after several weeks of this. Then I got better loads.

 

Hell yes. That's the name of the game. if you've got 16,000+ trucks and a brokerage system and you can't get the loads covered, you've got some explaining to do. Most of the time a driver dropped the ball or a load planner or coordinator dropped the ball, or weather got in someone's way, and someone else has to "fix it" at the last minute.

 

I think load planners sit on the loads and try to put the blame on the driver.

I had a load planner tell me I could deliver a load in Illinois, remember speed limit was 55 not 65 then. They wanted me to drive the truck at top speed on 2 lane and interstate and average 65. Not possible.

 

Heck, IDC wanted me to do 620 miles, Fontana-LA-LA suburb- Phoenix. That's 180 miles of LA freeway traffic and final was 22 hrs from start, with 2 live unloads before that.. all in a 60 mph truck. I told them they were using "office math" and needed to come back from Fantasy Island. Oh and this would have started at 0700 local time... (LA doesn't ever have problems with rush hour).

 

No. Rush hour in LA is such s breeze. Lol

 

I got a call at 2:30 am from my company, I had a pick up at LAX, the dispatcher gave me less than 2 hours to get there at 3am from La Jolle. I would have made it but I hit stop and go traffic at 4am and then after 45 minutes sitting in traffic, the dispatcher called me and asked me in not nice terms I was to be there on time. I asked where the dispatcher is sitting, she was in her home in Shreveport so I explained to her what I am doing and why. Then I offered her a free trip out to LA to try to drive at 3am in stop and go traffic and see if she can make it to a pick up on time. I found out from the customer that they called at 3 pm the previous day and the item came in at 7 pm and could have been picked up after 7:30 at the dock. The afternoon dispatcher forgot about it, the night dispatcher caught it and tried to rush it. The delivery was for 5am, which it didn't get there on time.

 

what a bunch of sallies on here rush hour this tight schedule that

 

A lot of times it is a matter of vetting the load picked up so it doesn't go to another company... they work out the logistics later.

Much of the planning has to do with available trucks in a given area... 50 loads, 48 trucks they will be scrambling to get the last two covered and if you Ade the next one empty in that area... your it.

Something when you sit a day waiting on a dispatch. 48 trucks...45 loads.