Life After Roehl

This much is certain; "planners have never been drivers!"

 

that's not totally true, some planners have been drivers.

 

This much is certain; "Planners who were once drivers have forgotten where they came from!"

 

I disagree, there is/was a flatbed planner (best in the group in my opinion) who was a former driver. Dude did excellent work.

 

When I worked there they started to implement a requirement for new flatbed dispatchers to ride with a flatbed trainer for a week and help him/her secure and navigate. Gives them an understanding of what we deal with out here while they are in the office.

Don't know if they still do that, but I met a few new hire dispatchers that were riding with trainers. One of the trainers told me his guys wanted to do everything but drive. He secured the load, checked it, did the paperwork, and everything else but driving. I think he would make a good dispatcher, he would have an understanding of what goes on.


My dispatcher at my new company used to be in payroll, so one good thing for me is if I ever have a problem with pay or a question on what I get reimbursed for she helps me out. We only have one planner for all company drivers, since all our loads are dispatched from ft. Worth, TX.

 

I started in vans and had to spend a week on the road, then I got switched to flatbed. I wish I had gone with a flatbed driver trainer so I could have done something. Riding shotgun for a week and sending qualcomm messages wasn't very challenging. I got to check in at shippers and dolly down trailers, the rest of the time I tried to fight the boredom and watch a driver of the year (seriously) decide to take short cuts that put us in situations where we had to get police to route us back to the road due to all the low clearance bridges. I wasn't impressed.

 

When I was there my dispatchers used to be drivers. There were a few times I wondered about the planners. I believe there is a difference in the two. Planners plan the load and the dispatchers run interference between the driver and the planner when the planner doesn't allow enough time on a load.

 

Dispatchers are just buffers between drivers and other departments.

 

Yup, we have a chain of command at this company. Everything goes through your dispatcher first, except for maintenance such as road calls for a break down. Everything else though you call your dispatcher.