Sales are the guys that sell your services to the customer. Then they tell the computer, HEY I need a body over here.....Sometimes sales are a wee bit unrealistic in what the driver can legally and safely do.
I have the impression from the Prime section here on TTF, that most or none of Prime drivers will run illegal. Is this true?
No one drives illegally at the behest of Prime. But you get the load and then sales has to scramble and adjust appointments. Or, the shipper overloads you (recently a load scaled at 87.5k) re-worked to 81.5k, back to re-work once more, and now, the load can't reach the 90 on time. Meaning sales is scrambling again. Sometimes load times don't take into account the actual traffic conditions. Normal traffic flow for some places is hell on wheels at various times. (Washington DC comes to mind.) Our experience is just reefer, but from what I've seen sometimes FB side is just as clueless.
So it seems as though sales people in trucking are as clueless as sales in any other area I've been involved with. Sad and funny... Q: Where does the dispatch person fit in in this mad dance?
In theory, they send you your loads. They keep an eye on their "fleet" of (I don't know how many) trucks, trying to get them positioned for what sales is selling.
The flatbed newbs are under the impression that the freight that sales books is supposed to match up with the vacation plans they have set for the week... Load planners work to keep the fleet positioned to meet the expected demand, and work with the dispatchers to match the freight to the best mix of trucks and operators. Dispatch is also the traditional link between the driver and the carrier.
