Dispatchers

Wife with no benefits lol

 

I've had great dispatchers and I've had terrible dispatchers and I'm happy now I have no dispatchers.

If you do the right thing and work hard and you're a good worker generally speaking it's supposed to be that the dispatchers and the management notice that and you get yourself into a good position.

But there are plenty of dispatchers that have their favorites, even places where owner operators work, and their favorites get the best loads and whoever else gets run around. If you find a place like that you've got to get out. You can't win and they control you.

But if you find a place that's fair and the dispatchers tend to spread the wealth, it makes it a little bit easier when the dispatcher asks you to make that run that no one else wants to do and he needs a favor and can you help him out.

If he's fair, your next load will be the big money easy gravy run.

 

For the record. Carriers all over the country actually define what a dispatcher is. Not all dispatchers are driver supervisors and not all driver supervisors are dispatchers. In fact most of the time the average driver has no contact with the person that actually put you on that load. Dispatcher is one of those terms in today's trucking world that in a lot of area's has been replaced with Fleet Managers and Load Planners. This is not some what is more a dozen or 12 situations either. In most situations when you send in that empty QC mac and you are empty released you go on that load planners board that runs the area you are in. I have heard load planners make statements after uttering a string of expletives that a said driver that just screwed him/her over will get a good load over their dead body. Fleet managers can have a tough time overcoming this. Also this is another reason some drivers can't get home time when requested because of pissing contests between fleet managers and load planners, and other office politics. Fleet managers generally sit a step or two below load planners in the office power structures as well. Most of the old hands in these boards know this already. My comment is directed to you new guys. Just know that YOU are sitting in that truck in nowhere USA and that fleet manager (your only real contact at the company) some of the time is in a swamp with some mean nasty people trying to survive and make you happy. In some respects its like juggling 5 balls while walking a tightrope.

 

My dispatcher is awesome,just ran from Pasadena to Ohio and turned me around back to California.Back to back 2200 mile runs...love it!

 

I've worked for a lot of large companies through the years. About 28 months ago I went to work with a small family owned business, about 5-10 trucks depending, husband drives, wife books the loads. We have had our differences and it took a little while to build a strong working relationship. I remember she wanted to plan my routes for me when I first started lol. These days she basically just texts me my loads and we have the occasional polite conversation. I'm not a truck number and she's not a babysitter. I honestly don't know how I made it over 20 years working for larger outfits that treat you like a piece of meat on seat.

I've had great dispatchers working for the megas, but they were few and far between. I've always been one of those drivers who tried to go the extra mile, and a few dispatchers thtough the years have done the same for me. But overall, and if I could do it all over again, I would have found myself a nice little family business years ago.

 

Meat on a seat, haha!
I like the way you put it.
Maybe they hid a George Foreman grill inside that seat and you are cooking to a medium rare or maybe in this case charred till nothing is left.

 

There has been about 4 dispatchers out of all that mess who were #### good. One in particular was like God, he knew what I was thinking or fixing to do if he got timely and accurate information. I hardly had to lift a finger.

If all the dispatchers were like that trucking would have been very good all around. But no. lol.

One was very bad. The worst. I called his boss and flat told him I'll leave that truck next to Yankee Stadium for parts and stripped to concrete block on frame in a weekend if he does not fire this one and give me another dispatcher within the hour. (There is no point getting into the months it took to lose my temper, I held on to that a very long time giving this one every chance.) (My next call was to take the AEM train to Baltimore high speed...)

I was given a new dispatcher. Every time I went into the company building for whatever purposes the old disptacher sit there in the corner like a looming thundercloud. Definately a problem. And every time I saw him it just motivated me like a Govt. Mule to dig in and get really stubborn about working .... just to spite him. ha.

 

Read through this thread. Now I'm convinced that all you need to do to get along in the trucking game is to wake up, do your haul no questions asked, without the need to be reminded where to go and when to do it.

As long as you can drive without being patted on the back, the dispatcher will treat you less like ####.

 

LOLOL This is sooo true. Just started a new job at this little small OTR carrier. Talk to a few drivers. One in particular talks trash about the company. "Bad choice, driver. Aint no money at this company. Hope you like Ramen Noodle soup 'cause dispatch gives the good loads to their poster boys and lets everyone else starve!" Im thinking "whatever, I'll see for myself".

Luck would have it, me and this driver are going to load out of the same place and delivering to the same place 450 miles away. We are both loaded and scaled out by 10pm. He asks me where Im gonna park for the night? I tell him Im running straight through the night to deliver at the customer right when they open up in the morning. He says "Oh naaaah, I dont mess with that night driving, dispatch knows that!". I say "Ok, CYA!!"

Come next week we end up meeting at another shipper. This time we load in the AM and start driving together. He stopped about 4 times before we had to take our 30 minute break (I kept going), then takes like a 2hr nap on his 30 minute break. When I get the the consignee 5 hours ahead of him, he tells me "Wow, you run too hard ... your going to get burnt out. Im a lazy driver, I get there when I get there. DISPATCH KNOWS THIS!!!"

By the time the driver got there they had shut down receiving and he had to wait until the next day. Meanwhile, I got put on a coast to coast run that paid top dollar.