Forced Dispatch

It means that they give you a load and you have to take it you can't pick and choose a load or where you want to go

 

But remember, no one can force you to drive in unsafe conditions. That's your call as a driver. I used it twice, once for black ice (Portland 2 years ago) and once for unsafe brakes. Now, some scumbags may try to give you grief over it, bad loads or such. A short paycheck is a lot better than dead, or worse yet -hurting someone else. I can guarentee that if you drive in an unsafe condition, that dispatcher who bullied you into it suddenly has never heard of you. Make sure if you decline for an unsafe issue, that you explain it carefully, politely and on the Qualcomm (or your companies version).

 

It also means that a company whom has you at 68.25 of your 70 hours can insist you to drive 2 hours to go to a area for your 34 rather than let you park it a mere 45 mins down the road.

And no, it was 2.5 hours on a Saturday afternoon.

 

I would consider "forced dispatch" to mean "take this load or get fired." I know some companies don't do forced dispatch, meaning if they send you a load and you don't want to take it, you may very well sit right where you're at for hours or days until they find another one for you. If you have some particular reason you don't want to take a load, your dispatcher/company may or may not respect it and still pressure you to do it. It all depends on your company's written policy whether or not refusing a load results in some official disciplinary action.

 

ok now you got the explanation of "forced dispatch" and now, non-forced dispatch means this (usually)...if you are given a load, but refuse it, there is no harm, no foul......

however, you go to the bottom of the list from that point till everyone else gets thier loads. what's left you can still refuse it.....but then again, how long would you want to sit......???

given a "rookie" or "newbie" status, you would NOT be able to refuse a load. now however, once you make it up the ladder at your company, you can turn down a load, in favor of leaving at a later time or day.....it's NOT refusing a load per se.......read on.

this I HAVE done so many times, i cannot remember. i was working for a small company. we had 4 road drivers. we would each pretty much go from Mass to Richmond, VA and back.....but if i didn't want to leave out on a sunday morning, i could turn down that load to the second driver (i was first). the second driver would take the load. then i would take a later load, say for maybe sunday night instead. the early sunday morning runs always required a total of 2 motel stays, rather the the ordinary one stay from leaving sunday night, due to our early sunday morning pick up near the NY state line, located in Lee, Mass, (from our Seekonk, Mass starting point).....

so turning down a load, (for a later, or even an earlier load) when you have seniority is not really refusing to be dispatched under the forced/non forced dispatch rules, at least where i worked at.

 

I have also heard of drivers writing 'forced dispatch' in their logs as a CYA when company mechanics insisted that there was nothing wrong with a truck which they knew had a mechanical issue that wasn't fixed.

I know a guy who noticed that his clutch fan was cycling on a lot and the temp gauges showed the truck was on the brink of overheating. He wrote it up when he got back to the yard. The next day, the mechanic told him there was nothing wrong with the truck and to drive it as it was. He wrote forced dispatch in his log noting that the mechanic refused to fix the clutch fan/overheat issue. That night, his engine blew up. His boss tried to pin the blame on him for it. He showed his boss his logbook and the mechanic ended up being blamed.