Dealing with Dispatch (for newbies)

Ahhh. Here we go. Me ole ball and chain! Effective communication is one of THE most critical aspects of any human interaction. Unfortunately, it is ALSO one of the most difficult to actually execute. Anyone with a longish term relationship with another human knows this. How many times have you had a conversation with your dear loved one that went something like this: "That's not what I said. I said . . ." "No, you said . . ." OR "I never said that." "Yes you did . . ." You said what you said (or didn't). They heard what they heard. Each of you perceived at the moment that you were communicating your thoughts effectively. You each go off all happy. Then something doesn't get done or GETS done that the other didn't intend. Then it's all HE SAID!! NO SHE SAID!!

The sad part is both are right . . . and both are not so right. Reality is 10% inception, 10% conception and 80% PERception of the previous 20%. With six BILLION people in this world from every diverse background, language, culture, upbringing, and the veritable cornucopia of other factors that go into PERception, it amazes me we humans can move a shoe box from the basement to the attic; much less around the globe along with 44K pounds of OTHER shoeboxes that all have to be individually tracked and communicated about with other humans. We really do this? YUP. Somehow we manage.

A key point new folks might bear in mind is this: One, you WILL mis-communicate. Won't mean to, but it'll happen. How isn't that important. It's gonna happen and again and again no matter HOW many steps you take to CYA. Simply TOO many individual, with their individual PERceptions involved to prevent it. Don't get mad and raise a bunch of Caine. Just chalk it off as a human grease spot on the road. A little Ooops, let's get back on track, and deal with it from there.

Second, they don't ship human organs to someone asleep and a second away from death all cut open on an operating table waiting for the donor organ by truck for a reason. SO, keep in mind you are hauling FREIGHT, not human organs going to an organ transplant assembly line. Despite the way some might want you to feel about it; nobody's heart is gonna stop beating or lungs stop breathing cause that freight didn't get there when they thought it would. Our National Supply and Logistics chain will be OK for a day without one load of shoeboxes that will be there tomorrow.

SO you must NEVER EVER, put yourself in a position to compromise your safety and the safety of all those around your 80,000 pound guided missile because someone somewhere mis-communicated and now YOU have to push it waaaay to your limits - or beyond. I recommend memorizing and practicing the following phrase til it comes off as smoothly and sincerely as floatin' a gear.

"Oh. Um. OK. Well, apparently there's been a mis-communication somewhere in the chain. OK. So, this is where we're at right now. How do we get it to go forward from here? Is there anything you can do to help me out or maybe point me in the right direction?" Blame comes right off the table and the person you are communicating with doesn't feel threatened and can just focus on the here and now of getting the thing finished. I mean; What'cha want there Driver? To be "right", "vindicated", held "harmless"? OR you wanna move forward and learn how to communicate more EFFECTIVELY. Bazillion ways to do THAT, I'd say at least as many as the global population.

Ahhh, if only we were all dogs, like our opposite genders call us (men are dogs, women are b!+che$: much to the insult of very fine canines across the world - who can communicate quite EFFECTIVELY with one another despite their different physio-cultural-environmental egocentric perceptions). See; dogs got this whole "EFFECTIVE communication" thing nailed straight down. Ever have a hard time getting a read on what a dog is trying to say? If so; you might be a candidate for the aforementioned organ transplant cause you be . . . drain bed! Huh? Exqweeeze me? I didn't undermuhstaning what he didn't said!

I SAID, be a dog. Keep it short, sweet and clear.

WOW, there's a contradiction for ya. A Doctoral Thesis on effective communication that is longer than Tolstoy or Michener - about keeping communication short and sweet.

Oh well.

I'm only human.

 

You are preaching to the choir.

But wouldn't you feel bad for not driving through ice/snow......... causing some fat slob to go without the latest new Xbox he ordered last week?

 

Um . . . excuse me there Squid. The fine folks in New Jersey will be OK for a day without their Clammato Juice and organic celery hearts for their Bloody Mary's and the good people in The City By The Bay can have regular chicken instead of tofu with their Rice-A-Roni for just one day. They'll get over it just fine.

Or go on Dr. Phil and tell all America why they are so deeply scarred by an IRRESPONSIBLE trucker! [sniffle, sniffle]!!

HEY, Wait!! Then we can ALL go on Jerry Springer and get some REAL therapy!!

Maybe not.

 

Is it possible to work with the same dispatcher enough that you can at least establish a rapport with them? Like, hey this guy helped me out when I needed it, now he needs a favor from me. Or do you only get that sort of thing at smaller companies?

 

This sounds very familiar.I had a few dispatchers like that,when you refuse the load you get put on the s... list.A few grunt runs follow,then they try you again.When you are new(and subconsciously want to make your new bosses proud of you is when they tend to abuse you.After a while you learn to say "no sorry I cant legally run it on time" goodbye. They get over it eventually and gradually call you less for their screwups.A couple years later" you're telling loud nasty jokes and drinking beer with them at the company T-bones game.Its usually a bluff anyway just to make them look productive and cover their a.....

 

When I was a company driver getting paid by the mile, I went full tilt all the time (had lousy credit so I was trying to save up enough money to buy a truck). My dispatcher and I hardly ever spoke. He'd get loads, I'd run them. I was running between Jacksonville Florida to Vancouver,BC. Back and forth. They went to elogs. Nothing changed.
He got promoted and I got a new dispatcher. She asked him about me and he told her that I was like a machine. See, I figured that if I was going to be out here, I may as well run. 65 mph truck. $.44/mile. I wanted a minimum of $200/day for every day I ran. Minimum. I averaged $250/day. The old school guys only have 2 speeds. Stop. Go. That's it. So I never had a problem with dispatch. If they called me, they would tell me about a load, the time window and ask, "Can you make it?" I was so use to running 700 miles a day, that I would take the mileage, and divide by 700. That's how many days I need. Regardless of the weather. To be fair, I ran a bunch of Canadian loads. All over Canada and even into the territories. Snow? Are you kidding? Northern Canada and the Territories was an eye opener. Those drivers up there are freakin rugged.

Anyways, I've never had a dispatcher try to muscle me around as a company driver. I did change the way I was running when I bought my truck, however, and that did increase the friction between me and the planners. You can't run a percentage contract the same way you do a mileage contract. You will go broke. Dispatch gets caught in the middle and they pressure dispatch to sell you on a BS load. Not happening. So dispatch breaks out the Dispatching for Dummies handbook, open up to the chapter entitled, Dealing with Stubborn Drivers who won't pull BS Loads.
1. Ask for a favor and say 'pretty please'
2. Appeal to his ego, 'driver, you're the only one around that can do this load. It takes a special driver to pull BS loads.'
3. Strongarm him. 'I need this done! This is an important customer! We have to move this for them!'
4. Try to get under his skin/piss him off. 'You are worthless! Are you gonna work today or what? Why the heck can't you get your butt in gear and get this load?'
5. Cry. 'You hurt me. Can't believe you wouldn't take that load. Why won't you do anything for me? Boo hoo boo hoo boo hoo.'

Nothing personal. It's just business. I am the machine, remember? Despite the antics of dispatch and the planners, keep it professional. No name calling on the QC, no threats. No heated phone conversations. When the Playbook fails, dispatch goes to the planners and says with a smug look, "Told ya so." Now, if the load really is critical the planners will call and ask you, 'Driver, what do you need to make this happen?' Aha! Now they're talking my language.

 

!1st--your dispatch is horrible. You should switch companies. NO FORCED DISPATCH is important for any company you sign on with,

2nd--Your 15 minute rule is way off. DO you drive to make money or just because you like it? When I call my guys I need an answer within 240 seconds (4 minute rule) for a YES or NO on the load. With market rates the way they are and you have a load that is 20000lbs and paying $3.25 a mile---- you cannot afford to take 15 minutes to accept or refuse the load. You need the top 4 facts. WHERE (pickup) WHEN (delivery) WEIGHT & PAY, nothing else should concern you. I don't what to hear what highway you want to take there and when you want to stop and eat. I want you to get there SAFELY & to make the money I promised you, you were going to make. PERIOD.
I own my own company. I have NEVER once forced my guys to take a LOAD---I had guys turn down what I would call a JACKPOT load and no hard feelings, I never pressure them to take a load or to "help me out". Dispatch is here to be of service to the OWNER Operator not vice versa.


Just my 2 cents!

 

I use to run allot of Fedex with Heartland. Ours was mostly overnight Air freight. So it had to be on time to meet a plane. Thus if you were late and it was your fault, then you were fired.
They had several planners looking over these loads at all times. And no driver that had less than 6 months with the company was supposed to run them. Though I heard from time to time it happened.
I agree 100% with him that I would never take a load if I had not had time to look at my hours and the load to confirm I could deliver on time. If I could not deliver on time I would let dispatch know. And would always do this on qualcom so that we had a record. I would tell them within 30 min of when I could pick up the load, and if not held up at shipper I could tell them within 30 min of my drop dead, if I did not have mechanical issues or major accident delays when I would deliver.
All this before I would take the load. And always on in cab communication. I believe that in the time I was with them they were 99.9 ontime delivery for fedex and carrier of the year for them at least 4 times.