question about dispatchers...potential good thread here!

I worked in dispatch for a short time. Starting pay was between $35,000 to $40,000.

As far as staying on my good side when I was dispatching? Don't make me call you to wake you up when you should have got on the road towards your delivery five hours ago. The best drivers were the ones I never had to talk to on the phone. They could be relied on to get the job done without being babysat.

 

When I worked in dispatch I was making like 38, I'm EVIL by nature so the pay didn't matter. However there were no incentives, I got paid salary aNd worked like 60 hours per week. I was cool with that because being EVIL is its own reward. Now I work in safety where I can put my EVILNESS to its full potential. Good luck out there, if you want to succeed accept the coaching that is given to ya and communicate. A touch of OCD will also help.

 

It's not the dispatchers job to monitor their driver logbooks, as your average dispatcher for a main OTR carrier has 100s of trucks in their fleet. All they see on their computer screen is a 'available' or 'empty' truck within the vicinity of a customer. They can also tell if the truck is a IC, O/O, or a company truck based on the truck number, and loads are given in priority from O/O's, IC's, to company drivers. The dispatcher may also only be in contact with IC trucks; meaning if you're a IC parked next to a company driver, that load is going to you first. For the company driver to take it, the load would need to be transferred to a different fleet and dispatcher. In a nutshell, this is why some dispatchers will 'pressure' a driver. It is always the drivers responsibility to say "yay or nay", not the companies. Simply because there isn't enough time of the day for a dispatcher to babysit 100s of trucks.

If you know you can't legally run a load, don't run it; no matter what the dispatcher says. If the dispatcher continues to pressure you, report them to safety. I guarantee you the dispatcher will never pressure you for a load after that.

 

I make straight salary so there is no incentive for me to push drivers, I dont babysit and I dont force guys to run illegal. Either you have the hours available or you dont. As far as getting on our good side, its rather simple. COMMUNICATION! If your running late, just be honest. How can you expect me to book loads when I have no idea where you are or when you will be empty. Also, treat people with the same respect that you expect. I dont talk down or curse at my guys, and I wouldnt put up with them doing it to me. I appreciate the job they do for me, and I hope they do as well. They must, because my guys dont leave me and we take calls several times a week from other drivers wanting to swap over to us.

 

The first DM my husband had I won't discuss - because I can't use that type of language here... now the one we have now, we 'communicate' with. She has let us know what she needs from us and we let her know what we need from her. We even went out to dinner She also let us know that she mainly 'manages' her drivers - its the 'planners' that assign the loads. They see the big board with where the loads and the trucks are. At least that's how she explained it to us...

 

I work for a small fleet and its more of a team effort between my dispatcher and I rather than "do as I say". She doesn't push me yet tries her best to keep the truck rolling so everybody gets a paycheck on Friday.

 

Perfectly said.

 

Every driver should meet their dispatcher face to face and tour the facility to see what goes on behind the scenes. Many drivers don't have a clue on the structure of the office environment and how things really work. Not every company is structured the same. Once you really know how things work instead of guessing, you can have a better working relationship with your dispatcher. Communication is number one.

Communication goes both ways too. There are dispatchers that ignore drivers just to make their job easier. What message comes across to you might sound stupid and not worth your time, might be very important to the driver. Ignore and the communication breakdown starts. Then there are companies now that expect dispatchers to handle twice the amount of drivers that are simply overworked.

The bottom line, everyone is suppose to work as a team for a common goal of making the company money. The more the company makes, the better off you will be. This is a people business. People with attitudes and think they are better then everyone else need to find another profession.

Joe, you get the miles by doing your job right and maintaining a good work relationship. You have to do the bad loads with the good and not complain. Many companies will get contracts and the shippers will say will give you all these good runs, but you have to take care of these short ones for us too. Now if you get a driver who gets mad and acts like a baby everytime he doesn't get that perfect run, the system is breaking down. Sometimes you have to take a bad run to get to a good run. Why pay you for DHing when we can generate some revenue enroute?

My last company rated it's drivers by how much revenue they generated and not neccessarily the miles. Your company gives you high dollar loads and they see you are responsible and deliver with no problems, you get more and your reputation builds. It's hard to have a good reputation when you are constantly late and have damage claims and stuff. You can see by the posts above, nobody likes a crybaby. Problems can be resolved in a professional and calm manner alot easier than throwing a fit.

Just like it takes a special person to be a good driver, it takes a special person to be a good dispatcher. If things ain't clicking, ask for another dispatcher before giving up.