Planners

Or.... a seriously pissed off driver paints your cubicle with the contents of your head.
Unlikely? Sure. Unheard of? Nope.
It ain't all sunshine and rainbows.

 

If you do get into the office side of things you're in for quite an education.
Our dispatchers are ex drivers and they've said, more than once, that there are times when they really wish they were back in a truck. Drivers worry about one load at a time. A dispatcher worries about several.
As far as pay goes, we pay our dispatchers more than they made as a driver. They're worth it. A driver can usually screw up only one load at a time...a dispatcher can screw up a bunch of loads.

 

I can't wait!Can dispatcher have an accident at work (other than falling of a chair)?Can dispatcher be sued for causing an accident?Can dispatcher get $750 ticket? How often a dispatcher sleeps in a truck?How often dispatcher piss into bottle? Etc...
Yeah,I thought so.Thank you for motivating me even more!
Loads are just that.Loads!Screwing up some loads won't screw anybody's life(s).Drivers deal with life and death matters.

 

I agree with what you say but the things that apparently bother you the most aren't ever going to change. They never have...they just get a little worse every year.
If you don't like it and if the responsibilities are too much for you you might want to get out of it.You're right about the bad things that can happen to driver. It's a hard life and nobody knows that better than I.
But going into the office might not be your best solution either. Imagine spending most of your day dealing with phone calls from customers who aren't happy. They don't call when things go right.
Imagine dispatching drivers and having them constantly griping about things that you have no control over.
As far as screwing up loads goes, you're also right. You probably won't kill anybody with a dispatch mistake. What you'll do is cost the company money, irritate the customer, aggravate the driver, and deal with another whole flood of phone calls to correct your screw up.
If it happens often enough you can start updating your resume 'cause you'll be unemployed.
'Least that's the way it works at our little thirty truck mom and pop outfit. The last dispatcher we hired was ten years ago.

 

I'll go back to being a yard dog before I'm a dispatcher.

 

Yes,I can imagine dispatching is not walk in a park but the level of personal risk and responsibility is simply incomparable.You saying making too many mistakes will cause you lose your dispatching job.
My understanding is you are/were a driver.If so,you know/should know that one driver's mistake can put him to grave or to jail.
Yes,I will try to get into dispatching as it seems to be much better deal.

 

With a background in driving you'll probably be a better dispatcher than some of the non-driver people I've seen.
They ...the non-drivers...usually have no real idea of what a driver goes through every day. That's one of the reasons that our key office people are former drivers.
The only people in our office who haven't actually driven are a couple of the ladies but we got them out on the road anyway. They spent several days riding with various drivers on some of the different jobs we do...logging, low bed, pneumatic bulkers, liquid tank,and flat beds...just to see what goes on.
We're a small outfit compared to most and we plan to stay small. It's easier to provide quality service that way.

 

No kidding!You guys seem to know what you doing.When I first started after like 2 weeks of dealing with dispatchers I thought it should be mandatory for them to spend at least 2 weeks with a driver on the road.Sleep when driver sleeps,eat when driver eats,s..t when driver s..ts and so on.I even thought that only former drivers can be GREAT dispatchers.

 

That's like going to hell and going for the devil's job so you don't have to shovel the fire.

 

I agree. The only bad thing that might happen is a driver becoming a dispatcher...or any kind of supervisor...and getting on some kind of power trip. We had that happen once and it was ugly.
Our guys, drivers and dispatchers both, are mostly older people who have been around the industry and this particular company for quite awhile.
The dispatchers say, and I agree, that the drivers...the actual day to day dealings and dispatch...are the easy part of the job. Again, this goes along with hiring older guys. Our drivers have had enough bad jobs that they know a good one whenthey see it. We have very little turnover.

What you'll find when you go into the office is that the customers, shipper or receiver, and some of the stuff they ask you to do, will be the ones that cause you the most problems. It's always a fine line between giving good service or attempting to do the impossible. Some times you just have to tell them no and if you do you'll need to have an alternative plan ready to go. Dispatching is problem solving, pure and simple.