Ask A Dispatcher anything

Thank you for starting this discussion, and for your candor.

If I were to be thrown under the bus like that for something I didn't do, I would take it very personally. If it were to happen twice I would separate myself from the carrier and move on.

 

If the carrier tries to blame you and/or give you a service failure for their screw-up, then I don't blame you. But if I were to give you a load, and I tell you "look I know you can't make this on time, just run it in as soon as you can". And then I call the receiver and say "this load is going to be late because the driver broke down, met a cute girl, etc," that is me covering a load and saving face for the company. Would it be better for me to say "I'm sorry, but your load is going to be 2 days late because my company's owner forced us to accept more loads than we could cover"? We both know what would be the best solution to this problem is. But that's not gonna change. So that's what I mean when I say that it's not personal. In the end, though, it really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Receivers aren't dumb. They deal with these issues dozens of times a week, and they've heard all the excuses. I've never given a driver a service failure for being late unless they disappeared into a casino and turned their phone off for 2 days...while under a load (yes, that really happened).

 

From what I know of you here , you are the exception and not the rule

 

I just write the express code and hand it back to them to fill in the rest Lol

 

How about instead of throwing the driver under the bus, throw yourself under the bus?
What happens is now when the driver gets to the receiver is they will both yell at the driver and take hours to unload to punish the driver for being late.
If you told the receiver you dropped the ba, then you would have to deal with the backlash instead of making the driver.

 

1 - If you have a receiver yelling at you about anything, then you need to let your company know. No receiver should be yelling at a driver for anything related to scheduling.

2 - 90% of the time, whoever schedules the load is not who receives the load. If they need a reason, then we give them one that won't come back and bite the entire company in the ###. The load is rescheduled, and the person in the receiving office doesn't know anything different. At your smaller outfits, they charge you a late fee, you get a money code from the company, and everybody is happy.

3 - This is a reefer company. You're gonna be sitting regardless, driver.

4 - My example was for a load that is a day or 2 late. If you're 2 hours late to your appointment because you were ####ing off in a casino, then that's on you...and the late fee comes out of your check.

I don't want to get drug off in the weeds on this, but we won't ever blame a driver to where it makes him look irresponsible. We will blame it on wx, traffic, and breakdowns. I know some companies will, but I don't. Sorry that I didn't make that clearer earlier.

 

If someone chewed my ### for being late and company I worked for lied about I would lay it out straight for customer and give my story. At that point I could give 2 craps about the company lie

 

How do you feel about driver call the shipper/Receiver
In my field I always call ahead and let them know what's going on and usually trying to pick up earlier or deliver. all my company does is give my a piece of paper with loads on it for the week and I'm doing all the calling letting them know what's going on

 

That’s a great way in my opinion. Give me the work and leave me alone

 

I enjoy it and I can usually run my ### off and finish a day early if it all works out