Dispatchers?

[focuzzn]

Im getting really upset with my current dispatcher with JB Hunt. As you can tell that Im not in expidite yet but will be soon.

Does anyone or can anyone tell me of some worst case stories of what you all go through?

Ive been trying to reasure the wife that expidite dispatchers have their head screwed on correctly and not to tight or loose either.
Like for instance today, I work for a dedicated account hauling meat. I came in today into the office and asked the dispatcher at 1:30, what will I be doing tommorrow? He said leave at 2am with two drops. I said ok. So I went home, shut off my cell phone to get some sleep. The idiot dispatcher called me up at 3:30pm and 5:30pm and left a message telling me about the same load and then telling me if I dont call him back he will give the load to someone else. What the @#*&%$#@*?

Now Im sitting at home wide awake and no work because I have a brain dead dispatcher.

Please tell me that it is better in expidite.
mike

 

[redytrk]

Dispatchers are pretty much the same throughout the trucking industry. The company gives them their instructions, and then some do a good job, and some do not. That's pretty much how it goes in all jobs where dispatchers are used. Its hard for us to understand the enormous pressure they recieve,from their company,and from us drivers.

I would suggest that you go with a company that uses a system of rotating dispatchers.Calls and runs are rotated to the first available disp. This tends to level the playing field.You don`t get stuck all the time with a bad disp until they are replaced.

FedEx has such a system and I am sure there are others.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

I also drove for JimBob once upon a time. No wonder I won't drive semi again. LOL

Yes... all companies have at least a couple "blonde" dispatchers. A couple, it seems, only hire blondes. Some, their rules were written by blondes. Very simple... when I need a brain on the other end of the phone, I ask for so-n-so. One thing to remember tho... ALWAYS treat the person on the other end with respect. You can always report a rude dispatcher later. If all the dispatchers know you as a responsible and nice guy, you hold the cards.

But all in all, expediting is a different world than ol' JB.

-A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it. - Henry Ford

 

[JohnO]

With Landstar Express America we don't have to deal with dispatchers we have agents calling us with loads. The beauty is agent are not employees on LEAM so they only make money when they get a truck to carry their load. We can negotiate compensation for each load. If you’re the only truck in area negotiation is much more favorable.

 

[bigjoep89]

At Fedex CC it is very very rare that we have a problem with the dispatchers. If anything the dispatchers put up with a lot more crap from the drivers than they should.

 

[jasonsprouse]

I'd probably do the same thing as that dispatcher, because he couldn't contact you to CONFIRM that you were going to cover the load. The conversation should have gone "I'm going to shut the cell off to get some sleep so you won't be able to reach me till X:XX".

There are bad dispatchers everywhere. When I drove for CTX there were 3 that had very specific bad habits. One was just an all around A-hole. One would deadhead you just to have you move. And one would call you 15 minutes before your ETA to "make sure" you were going to make it, even though the GPS showed you were a few miles from the drop (read unnecessary roaming charges).

 

[jaminjim]

Glad your not my dispatcher Jason, It was a dedicated run.

 

[greg334]

Dispatchers?

I have very strong feelings about dispatchers. To me most companies miss the boat on training dispatchers and don’t put them on commission.

FedEx, a company I really like, has a big gap with dispatchers. They are undertrained by my standards and do too much (CCs and dispatchers – bad idea). What I find watching them work is they need to learn what it is like to drive a truck – meaning the week long ride-a-long is a joke – I feel a month of earning a living in a truck will give them a real idea. Also for those who go through this type of training and survive will actually be retained longer than ones who get cursory training and a week long ride-a-long (hint on employee retention and I am available for consultation for those companies who need help).

The other thing I find is the lack of maturity with dispatchers, most seems to be in their 20’s and this is a bad thing to me, I can’t discuss issues/problems with the dispatcher if there is no connection in language and maturity – many times end up with no real solutions.

I am sorry for those who think this is hard work, it is not – it is actually really easy work, many make it look hard because they can’t handle balancing all of it. . Dispatching trucks (contractors) are simple and there is no life dependent freight (very rare) out there to deal with, so the ideal of high pressure is a joke.

I also am going to throw this into the mix;
We live in a mobile society, we have all this technology and truthfully I am amazed that many companies (the major two companies in this niche market is who I am really talking about) can’t get the idea to embrace technology to build a work at home group and hire former contractors (even contract with them to be on a commission) to dispatch. Give them training (legal by the way), hook them up with the needed computer software and a real internet connection and let them loose as dispatching – my God talk about a solution for many problems these companies have. You don’t need someone on site, that is such a crock of cr*p and a poor excuse to me. There are so many companies that do this with a lot of success. One major Pharma company I know does this with study data, they contract with mothers who work at home typing in hundreds of medical information sheets from doctors who do the studies.

 

[LDB]

>He said leave at 2am with two drops. I said ok.

Sounds confirmed to me. I'd be complaining to higher ups about that one. You'll find the gamut at any good sized company, as others have said. The biggest problem I see is dispatchers that hit you with a refusal on jobs that fall into the no refusal category. That happens FAR too often at Panther.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB
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Owner, Panther trucks 5508, 5509, 5641
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Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[TeamCaffee]

Our background is with forced dispatch and we were less then a number. The first time we had a telephone load offer from FedEx Custom Critical we thought it was a wrong number because of how we where treated. Who the heck every heard of a THANK YOU for taking a load? Yes there are some that give you bad information and yes there are some that blow you off and yes there are even those that are having a bad and do not treat you the way you have grown accustomed to. You do have recourse though to go above their heads if it is bad enough and they know it. Treat them the way you want to be treated and 99% of the time all is well.

Another great thing we found going from USX to here is the type of customers we deal with! Wow what a welcome change. For us going from USX to here was night and day and we never forget our roots and so are thankful every day for the professionals we are treated as by customers and FCC. I think you will be very pleased to get into this environment.

 

[terryandrene]

What Linder said, except for the USX talk.

 

[focuzzn]

Thank you all for all of your replys.
Well the dispatcher called me back and said he was sorry. Of course he blamed others but at least he said it.
Im looking forward to driving for expidite trucking.

mike

 

[arkjarhead]

Well I know at TranStewart we had some dispatchers who worked from from home. And one in particular really had a bad attitude. I called her on Sunday to check in and tell her my progress on my load. She started making fun of the way I talk. I asked her if she was just joking she said no you white trash rednecks sound like retards. I told her thank you for the compliment. Next day(monday) I talk with the head dispatcher. She talks to the lady. Then the dispatcher wants to call me cussing me for getting her in trouble. I told her when I asked if you were just playing around you rudely said no. So then I called the owner's wife. The lady got fired. I felt bad, but the owner's wife said you know what we have customers in the south and who is to say she wouldn't talk to them the same way. The morale of the story is don't get mad get even. If you do something out of line they will report you, and guess what you can do the same. I will give you one piece of advice.Do some serious research before jumping into the expedite thing. I've been off of the road for a year but from what I've been reading here you might want to think. The money is like it sed to be. But people treat you a lot better. I know I got treated a lot better in expedite than I did at CR England.

 

[Suds43]

The truck we were driving was leased to Metro Express in St. Louis Mo. by our owner......We were only with that company for 3 weeks....THANK GOD!!
They claimed to have dispatching 24/7.
Near Laredo, Tx. at 5 a.m. with a 7 a.m. delivery. Call dispatch for specific directions to the delivery address. Come to find out, the dispatcher was at home on her personal computer. She goes to mapquest to get directions, we had to coach her along, tell her over the phone how to use mapquest!! The directions she gave us would have landed us smack in the middle of a high school parking lot. We told her we had a map of Laredo and was checking her directions and they didn't appear to be right. She defiantly stated that she was right, then hung up!!!
Previous to that, we were with Tri-State for almost 3 yrs. In that time, had one major problem with two dispatchers, and a few minor problems that were quickly cleared up with respect and friendliness given on both sides........The right attitude (on both sides) works every time!!

I agree that dispatchers should come from the trucking industry...in our experience, some were college students that had a business degree but knew nothing about the trucking industry. Other's were there just to get a paycheck and work until some other job came their way.

Work from home dispatchers?? Can't ever see it happening!!!! No thanks.
Metro Express again: Called dispatch trying to get some info on a pick-up.......Could hear a baby in the background. Now remember, we're under the impression their 24/7 dispatch meant someone was in the office 24/7. This woman, the same as mentioned above,come to find out, was at home babysitting her neice. And of course she didn't have the info we needed, it was at the office. During the course of the conversation with her she was constantly asking if we could "wait a minute", she had to do this or that for the baby........Just from this experience I would not drive for a company that had "work from home dispatchers"!!

 

[greg334]

Suds,
The thing is there is something wrong with what you described and rightfully so to say what you are saying. It is not like you just plop someone down in the chair and tell them to dispatch, there are things that the company needs to do to ensure that things work for all involved, one is to select people who are willing to deal with all kinds of problems and be patient and the other is to monitor their work consistently and regularly.

Training is a big part of the success of any work at home dispatching, having someone who can’t read a map is useless as someone who can’t use a computer. What you describe is something I think proves it will never work unless there is incentive involved.

But on the other hand, access to the companies system and programs has to happen. I know this is a problem with some companies because they are clueless on technology.

My wife works at U of M hospital calling people at home about results and stuff and she has to be patient and nice all the time. Her supervisor listens to her and the others all the time and when something is not right; her boss tells them like it is. I have presented a proposal to the department head about working at home for half the staff because more then half have to travel more then 40 miles to work each way and with the cost of gas, the problems they are finding qualified people to fill positions and cost of floor space they have to rent off campus, no one has really succeeded to show them how to make things work.

 

[mccutchancrew]

this is focuzzn, I changed my name to mccutchancrew because focuzzn was in the past.
thanks again for your feedback

 

[fastman_1]

I work with 3 1/2 Great Dispatchers and the half is Improving Everyday. The say what the mean and mean what they say.






































Owner/Operator since 1979
Expediter since 1997
B Unit Semi Retired
Somedays are Diamonds and Somedays are Stones
Home is Wherever you Park.
The Price of Freedom is Written on the Wall.

 

[RichM]

Since she is gone I can say this. How many of us remember Phyllis in FDEXXCC W/G?It was always so pleasant to hear her on the phone. Where the hel- are you,get your as- moving etc. Usually when I called and she answered I would hang up. I had customers telling me they were going to report her. I remember over at Anniston one time a guy had a petition out to be signed by W/G drivers to get rid of her.

We were on a DDPS load going into Denver once and were running about 4 hours ahead of schedule. So we stopped at a F/J somewhere where we could take separate breaks to get cleaned up,sent in a bedcard. I came back out to the truck and my wife was half pisse- and half crying as Phyllis had called and reamed her out because we stopped. I then called Phyllis and said "whats the big deal,we are way ahead of schedule,we need bathroom and food stops so what is the problem. The next day I heard that she had reported me for insolence etc. I called Andria(remember her) who was one of the better ones and she said"don't worry about it as the managers pay no attention to her complaints". Shortly after they started recording allcalls Phyllis was gone.

 

[x06col]

My experience with work-at-homes is, the very vast majority don't have the discipline to make it work, at home. They allow themselves way too many distractors, and, they don't want to take the time to get their "sheets" together to make it work for them. Just anuther easy way out, it seems. Just like anything else, they need to work at the project, get really good at it, then, make it "easier" (not easy) by less road time etc. In this invironment there should be quite a bit more time to devote to the task at hand. However, just the opposite happens, because of the "nature of the beast". It is an unfortunate thing about the beast ya know.

 

[Moot]

The biggest problem I see is dispatchers that hit you with a refusal on jobs that fall into the no refusal category. That happens FAR too often at Panther.

Leo, can you explain this? What comes under the no refusal category?