Inside Track..

I've never entered into an arrangement where we were friends before the job, but I'm naturally a very outgoing and talkative person. I've made it a point to really become friends with the dispatchers I've had over the years. Not just joking conversation when I call for a load. I try to really get to know them and consequently they end up getting to know me. With some dispatchers it's gone so far as to hang out and chat over dinner at a local restaurant whenever I'm in town. I love having the sort of relationship. It makes things more smooth when there's a problem with the business side of things. Neither of us ever end up saying some of the comments like "Are you f****** stupid? You really expect me to take that load...." Hopefully you see what I'm getting at. If I'm legitimate friends with my dispatcher, it's understood. If she (currently running for my first female dispatcher) offers me a crap load, I know she's not trying to "punish" me or make me prove myself. She wants me to make money as much as I want me to make money. On the flip side, when I turn down a load, she knows that it's not for some childish reason like "I'm gonna teach her who's in charge here." She doesn't even have to ask. She knows there's a good reason. So in a gargantuan version of a nutshell, there's my take on it.

 

And I can second those words. If you handle your dispatcher in a professional manner, you will rarely encounter problems. You sit down with the dispatcher, let him know how you like to run, what you will do, what you won't do, what your limits are and what you expect out of him. At the same time, you get from him what he needs from you and what he will do and not do. In short, you communicate.

And once you set up the rules, you don;t break them. My dispatcher knows that I won;t turn him down on a load, and if i call and say that I can;t make something work, it means just that. then we look at alternatives. I don;t claim to be out of hours so i can take the weekend off. If I have a special event that requires me being off, I tell him and make the arrangements.

I'm pretty much attuned to how he operates, and he knows how I operate, and it means that in the past 4 years, i have never once had a problem with my dispatches. In fact, when i came to work where I am, 3 of the 4 references I provided were dispatchers that I had worked for in the previous years. The remaining one was my old employer. And those references counted a lot better than hearing from your first grade teacher as a reference.....

 

No doubt communication is essential between the driver and the dispatcher.

I have worked in this environment for alot of years and can say that the drivers I work with are awesome!

Not the whiners they are made out to be and hard workers.

Common courtesy and respect on both ends works wonders.

We get the job done!

 

I have a female DM and I am very happy with her. She does not pester me all the time wanting to know stuff all the time and she is the best DM I have ever had. On friday if my dispatch takes me away from home she qualcomms me and says working to get you home. I am not one to cry that I am not getting home. I have only missed 2 weekends home with this company, and I have told her if I don't get home I can handle it. I have deployed oversea's twice for a year at a time both times. I think I can handle 2 weeks out. My company is good about swapping trailers to get you home. I swapped with a guy this weekend to get him home.

I have had DM's before that would qualcomm me asking if I would make the appt on time? Well duh look at your PC I am 30 minutes out and have an hour before my window opens. Had one dispatch qualcomm me with a message telling me I had better get moving, Had a hot load and was in chicago waiting on a train to clear the tracks. Stupid back seat drivers!

 

I've worked for a company where my friend was my planner.

We made a lot of money before we both left within a week of each other

He left....Then I left. I really couldn't see any point of staying with the new guy. He was 24, just graduated from college. And had never worked in the trucking industry. He was also responsible for getting ALL my loads.

How he got the job? I have no clue.

 

You start out, naturally enough, at the bottom of the pecking order. From the dispatchers point of view, you are untested, and he is unsure of your capabilities and work ability and ethice. You move up, not by becoming his best friend and drinking buddy, but by proving yourself as someone who will deliver on time, with no problems, as someone who will communicate clearly and as early as possible, and making yourself a proven driver. Based on that, then he is going to start entrusting more critical loads, or better paying ones because he has a feel that you can be trusted to get the important freight where it needs to be at the time it needs to be there.

Example: I ahve a bakery that occasionally will shut down over the weekend and among the various maintenance they will clean their flour storage silos. Then, they plan to restart production at 8 am Monday mornoing. Since it takes 4 hours for the dough to rise so they can commence baking, then need their flour in the silo at 4 am. My dispatcher will put that load on me and possibly not on some of our others because he knows that I will be there on time as requested and some other drivers may not. The guy won can;t seem to roll out of bed in the morning and then gets caught in the morning traffic jam will instead be assigned a load that delivers into a big time window, vice a specific time,. And our customers pay better for specific appointments, vice open delivery windows.

Your dispatcher will take care of you based on how you perform for him. It's a yin/yang type relationship, but you have to develop it to make it happen. It won't be there on day One.