Do Dispatchers Lie?

[letzrockexpress]

I have been in this business for aproximately 5 years all together, most of them with one carrier. Throughout this time I would say I have had a fairly good relationship, in general, with dispatch personel at all 3 carriers I have worked with. Having said that, I like to think I have a pretty good BS detector. (I should, I was a siding salesman for almost 20 years.) This meter has remained mostly inactive over these past years, somewhat like a smoke detector, hanging on the wall, waiting to squawk into action should a germane situation arise. Lately, or at least a couple times lately, the needle of this sensitive instrument has jerked violently to right, sometimes even into the red zone while I'm involved in communication with members of the dispatch community. I'm not sure what to make of this development. Are any of you having a similar experience?

 

[davekc]

Probably would depend on what carrier you are talking about.

 

[layoutshooter]

I don't think that we have been lied to very often, if at all. We are often not always told EVERYTHING, maybe a lie by omission. Often the dispatchers do not always have all the info when they speak to us either. We also always keep in mind that they do not work for us or our benefit, they are employees of our carrier and responsible for their employeers needs, not ours.

 

[Dakota]

Are their lips moving.......

 

[xiggi]

Never, I know this to be true because I used to be a dispatcher.

 

[Darmstadter]

Never, I know this to be true because I used to be a dispatcher.

I was a dispatcher for a while too. We were paid by the hour and no bonus - didn't need to lie. If the dispatchers are getting a bonus based on what they cover; that's when I would look for the lies of omission and flatout lies to start flying.

 

[Turtle]

I've been lied to a few times, but it's pretty rare, really. Like LOS said, if anything it's usually a lie of omission, either intentionally or because they don't have all the information in the first place. Most of the times I've been lied to, at least those I know about, my BS Detector goes off and I call them on it right then and there. It's when something out of the ordinary happens and they are off the script, that's when they'll lie to you, if it gets them to the resolution of the problem quicker. But for the most part, there's nothing for dispatchers to lie about, no reason to.

 

[Vinnie T]

Dispatchers lie about drivers complain.....that is trucking!

 

[DannyD]

I think if they do it's got nothing to do w/ em being dispatchers & more just the general percentage of people who lie. I'm pretty happy w/ the one's I deal with now. I've generally been happy w/ the ones in the past also, except for one company. That had more to do w/ em waking me up every day than lying though.

In my personal experience it's been more the recruiters who've lied. Even then, it's only been 2. So in response to your original Q, I'd say that generally the dispatchers I've dealt w/ I've felt have been pretty honest.

 

[geo]

dispatcher never lie they may not tell you the true
but they would never lie to ya
also dispatcher never know how far it is they say it's only 1" on the map

and to be a good dispatcher they got a f in history and many other subjects

 

[Dakota]

dispatcher never lie they may not tell you the true
but they would never lie to ya
also dispatcher never know how far it is they say it's only 1" on the map

and to be a good dispatcher they got a f in history and many other subjects

I love it when they call ad say they have a delivery, "oh and BTW can you take this one that is on the way?" when it takes you 50 miles out of your way LOL

 

[moose]

No , not that i recall

 

[Yesteryear]

I think some dispatchers will say anything to get a driver to cover a load. We drivers must understand it is their job to get that load covered. I don't think they just "lie" to be lying. They may omitt something once in a while like, lets see, hmmmm, Scenerio lol "I have this great load going from Chicago to Los Angelos, do ya want it?" They might forget to say "Oh yeah, the load doesn't pick up until 4 days from now and delivers the week after next" lol
See to a dispatcher they see they have this beaut of a load that is going to make the company money and they need to get it covered. Just trying to do their job.
Got to say since being with E-1 have never been lied to by dispatch nor had a load with omissons.

 

[greg334]

Of course they do.

Most who are dishonest either know nothing about the work that goes into hauling the freight or there just to get a paycheck. As I said before, I think everyone who has to deal with the driver/owner directly needs to be on the road at least a month as part of their training but not a week ride along.

Their paycheck doesn't depend on the customer unless they getting the work directly from the a client which means they have to depend on us to do the work or lazy and broker it out. In this case a lot do lie to get things moving.

When they bid on a load, it is even easier than sitting and trying to find a truck to cover a load for a customer. They do less work, have to make a couple calls and that's it.

The honest ones, which there are a lot of, will not hesitate to admit to making a mistake, won't give you a line of BS and make sure that the correct information is handed to you to make a business decision - like what specs of the freight is so there isn't a surprise at the docks.

The thing that most forget is that we are the key to their success, not the other way around. Without the capacity to move the freight all they are, are just telephone jockeys.

 

[layoutshooter]

They might even find it easier to cover some of those bad loads if they gave ALL of the information up front. We took a load last week, it pays great per mile, LOTS of miles, low weight. The problem with it was it was offered late last Wed and does not pick up until tomorrow.

We thought it over. A holiday coming up. Lots of trucks in the area. An area not noted for a lot of freight. The chance to see our son and granddaughter for a few more days. We took the load.

The dispatcher made it clear right from the start when this load picked up. We were available for local short runs, not likely and none were offered. Be straight from the start and things often work out best.

 

[FIS53]

Oh h*** yeah they do!! I've had it at every company since back in the 90's. No they don't lie all the time or even out of spite for the most part but they do lie. The one at a Mayne Nicholas company told me there were few out of town runs when I asked what happened to them as suddenly they sort of stopped. I found out two weeks later he was farming them out to another division and lying to his own brokers so as to keep them around doing shorties.
My current carrier the dispatch told me right to my face a lie about certain runs. Why lie? Makes little to no sense but yes they lie and when things get tough they seem to lie more.
Dispatchers have been lying to customers and drivers for a lot of years. For some it is second nature and therefore a bs detector is useless.
Rob

 

[EASYTRADER]

Yes,
but not very often. More often than lying they leave out pertinent details. Like having to hand-load 3000lbs of banker boxes. Which was left out of the phone call to get me to take a load, then sprung on me by the shipper. When I called back to dispatch, new dispatcher tells me oh thats always the way it is there. Not sure why, you weren't told up front. Judging by the fact that many trucks in front of me turned the load, I guess they were told about about the hand-loading and I was not.

I'm not afraid of work, but I am afraid of being, BS'd around on purpose. Also made FECC look like jack-azzes because when we showed up shipper expected us to hand load, it was a surprise to me. I told him we never hand-load things like that, so there must have been a mis-communication, besides 3000 pounds of banker boxes should be palletized. He asked me to clear the dock while I called FECC to straighten it out.

Which I happily, did. I cleared the dock and went back to the TA. They guy was a jerk anyway, and when FECC offered me $100 bucks to do the loading I was glad I had left the shipper.

FECC was ****ed I left the shipper and for punishment they put me out of service for a day. When I called contractor relations to straighten it out, I learned they always have problems booking that load because it has to be hand-loaded. I told contractor relations, I would have been happy to do the run in the future if it paid twice as much, and if dispatch didn't leave out the hand-loading. I also told them, in the future I would leave the shipper again if details like that were left off the load offer, unless a substantial amount of money was tendered to make up for the "Mistake". Strangely enough, contractor relations agreed with me.

Anyway, thats one example of a dispatcher "Lying", that I know happened. Didn't work out too well for anybody involved.

I don't know how long it would have taken to load 300-400 banker boxes. I'm not about to find out either, not for $100 bucks anyway.

 

[guido4475]

I sat and thought about this for awile.And, "I know I'm going to sound like a major kiss-*** here, but I have never been lied to at All-State from any department so far.Honestly.

Every one is kind, courteous,and trustworthy as far as I can see.If there is a crap run, dispatch lets me know upfront, the same with tight delivery times, etc.

I used to work for a company in the past that made an art out of lying.Several times a day would be expected, both to the driver and customers, what few they had left, anyway.So many times the customer that we would be doing the load for would call me and ask me for a POD.I'm like, I'm not even there yet, about 3 hours out and on time to the original protect time.They're like, no, your company is showing you in already.I'm like, that's news to me, since I am still driving with the load on my truck.Why ???? Why not be honest in the first place? What good does lying do? Absolutely nothing.But create more headaches and add to the chaos.Some day we'll all be held accountable for what we say, anyway, so why add to it?

 

[aileron]

I have had a few dispatches lie to me, but not that often. What annoys me the most about the dispatchers is that they have a very very short memory. I used to help them out cause they asked me to, but after I would say yes, they didn't remember who I was. I was wandering, what happened to the 'honey'.......blah blah. Then one time they promised paying me some extra, and they forgot about it. Since then, everything they promise needs to be on the qualcomm.

At my last carrier, I got a call from the dispatcher. "I have this great load for you, you want it?" I am waiting, and waiting. Then again: "You want it?" I was like, I know I am new here, but not new to the business, so, to tell you yes or no I need more info. So I asked "Where from and to" She responds "xxx OH to XXX WI". I am waiting. She asks: "You want it?" By this time I get a little bit upset. I told her: "Listen, I need more info if you want an answer from me. Especially the pay". She responds: "It is paying great". My response: "Are you for real? How much is the load paying?" Then she tells me: "75 cents per mile including fuel surcharge." My answer: "If that is a great load then what is a bad load for you guys? Needless to say, I only hung around for a week at that company. I just don't like being talked to this way.
I like the "load opportunity" that we have now at FedEx, since I almost never have to talk to a dispatcher. When I get the load op, all the info that they have is there.

 

[guido4475]

Yes, from my past experiences, the worse the load is, the less information is offered about it at time of acceptance. Or they'll say, it is real hot, just get there, I'll send you the info once it is picked up. Or another one is, just get rolling, still waiting on the fax.Thank God I'm away from that where I am at.