To you Fleet/Driver Managers here..

Im sure there are company's out there that do actually force drivers to run over their HOS or do other abusive things to drivers. i myself hear from my drivers often how they are tired of sitting, granted there is gonna be times that you will sit for a bit. when there is no freight i cant wave my magic wand and create it. but there is one thing i dont do and thats lie to my drivers or guarantee them a load or try to force them to do something that they cant legally do. everyone hears the horror stories. not every company is perfect everywhere you go you will hear the bad and the good.

 

Thanks for the dispatchers point of view. We don't usually get that here and it's good to here from the other side. Also gives drivers an inside.

What kind of dog is that?

 

hi
my doggie is a Weimaraner had him since he was a lil puppy such a lil cute doggy he is growin up on me love my dog to death


I dont want you to think that im the type where i feel that hey us fleet mgr's are always right and the drivers are always wrong, no way. or that my company or "the company" is always right. do i have disagreements with my company from time to time ? sure and im sure everyone does. i was just trying to point out that as far as what i have seen and what i have been through with my drivers. if you dont have a good relationship with your driver and you dont communicate well with each other it will never work. a good fleet mgr can sit and listen to a driver screamin at him for 10 minutes and by the times the convo is over at least they will be talking in a civil manner. i do know when i first started out in this great profession if a driver yelled at me well then look out it was jerry springer time ding ding ding oh how i quickly learned. drivers are people too and should be treated with respect, not saying we shouldnt either. but to be a fleet mgr you have to not let things get to you.

 

Thanks to the DM's/FM's for your posts!

 

Feel free to ask more questions, I'm not doing anything until Feb 7th. My answers suck, but I'll still post them.

 

Had to ask about the pup. I have a great dane pup that looks a lot like yours. She has copper eyes though.

 

Will do Meltom!

 

I must say, our night dispatch was an angel yesterday.
I delivered to a rail yard and didn't know I had to be authorized to take an empty out of there. I just hooked up to an empty and headed out. Well I was stopped at the gate and had to turn around.

Notified dispatch about the scenario. They said they would contact the CSR.
So I sat...and waited...and waited..and waited. Finally my hours were almost up and I couldn't sleep there so I bobtailed out to a truck stop.

Came back to the truck after dinner. Still nothing. By this time night dispatch had taken over. I shot a message out and eventually was told to bobtail to a nearby place to pick up an empty and then head out to pick up my load.

The load was already a late pickup because I didn't have the hours to pick it up because I was sitting there waiting for dispatch to get back to me about that trailer back at the rail yard. Luckily it was a pre-load so after my break I got the trailer, headed to the shipper, got the load and headed towards my destination.

I'll still make my delivery on-time but if it wasn't for night dispatch, who knows how long I would have been sitting there waiting for someone to figure something out.

So yeah, most times night dispatch handles emergencies, some times they have to do some damage control.

..and to think I sent a message after picking up the empty trailer saying "(dispatcher name) saves the day again!" and all I get in response was a 10-4.

 

If anyone has questions for FM/Dispatchers feel free to ask. I'm not one anymore but I'm willing to share my 2 cents.