Dispatcher Problems? Maybe?

If you can switch out to a different division or region--do it.

Hometime (off duty) is just that--hometime.

If your dispatcher is short-changing & bothering you there--then you definitely need to shake things up.

--Lual

 

You are the captain of your ship you do your own trip planning and decide what is a proper ETA to arrival not some dispatcher behind a desk… do not let them pressure you into running the way they want you to run.

 

Dispatchers can make you or break in this industry and your current one is starting to break you. I suggest changing regions because you don't need to put up with that nonsense. No dispatcher should be bothering you on your hometime.

 

Also, once you have your dispatch and your off duty at home, do not take a work call. When home time is done turn the phone on.

 

Your dispatcher is behaving differently than the dispatchers I had. Usually the pick-up and delivery times are set and I know them when I get the load. At my last company I was routinely given loads a day or more after they were supposed to leave and I delivered them when I could, not at the original delivery date/time.

It sounds like your dispatcher is expecting you to work like a robot and provide the company 100% efficiency for moving as much freight as possible. I would start a work slowdown if you have a discussion with the dispatcher and it had no effect. I would work strictly legal like a Highway Patrol Officer was riding with me and "dot my Is and cross my Ts". I would also expect the dispatcher to then attempt to starve you out by giving you bad loads with LOTS of time sitting around and hoping for you to quit. I NEVER answer the phone during my 10 hour break from he company or during my 34 unless my company has proven they are not treating me as you describe. I would go to the dispatcher's boss and ask for a new dispatcher and/or begin a serious research effort to find another place to work. In my experience you never change the company. Ignore the ads of trucking companies. Ignore the recruiters for trucking companies. Talk to current workign drivers at the company doing the work you are about to do for that company. It does no good for some dedicated account driver to tell you about the company if you are going to be an OTR driver, etc. Never work at a company until you have talked to current working drivers and gotten the details on pay, benefits, home-time, anything else important to you and you like what you hear. Newbies think they can do everything online and they foolishly trust words written on ads or websites. Don't trust words from the company about the company.

 

Every dispatcher should have a general travel time for loads. If THEY are good at what they do, they’ll have customer notes and the travel times in a spiral notebook or in a database, for quick reference. A safe bet is 50mph average, plus 2hrs per day. The 2hrs is built-in cushion, for traffic, accidents, etc. That’s 550 miles per day, which is a reasonable expectation.

Your hometime should be an agreed-upon number. Your dispatcher should’ve asked what you feel like doing, usually 1-2 days in advance. That way they can plan for that time off. Once set, it should be non-negotiable. The exception would be something like an emergency with another driver. And then, there needs to be an agreement to make up for the favor.

If your dispatcher isn’t approaching this working relationship as a partnership toward your success, then, something has to change. It doesn’t matter you’re new. It’s their job to provide the backend support for you to be successful on the frontend (what the external customer experiences).

I recently started with a new company. There’s a dispatcher who’s responsible for the contract I run, but, he’s not my dispatcher. This guy started off trying to run me (micromanage). We’ve had a contentious relationship, from day one. The ownership know I came to work for them, because of the company’s overall demeanor, which is very relaxed—just do your job. Third week, I went in, sat down with a manager, and explained what was going on and how I felt about it. He said he’d let the owner responsible for operations know. That owner came to me, apologized, and acknowledged the issues, as I’m not the only one having problems with this dispatcher. Since then, my actual dispatcher, who’s awesome, has been answering most all my calls and the other dude has pretty-much stayed out of my business, as it should be.

Where I work, every single position outside the truck is considered a driver support position. The ownership realize, without supporting the driver’s success, there’s no customer success. Without those successes, there’s no company. This is the way it should be at every company.