One Dispatcher over another

[Darmstadter]

Another thread out here (something along the lines of Dispatchers say the darndest things) got me thinking:

There are great and lousy dispatchers, just the same as any other profession. If you were on the fence about taking a load offer or if it was an offer you might normally turn down, would your opinion of the dispatcher have any bearing on your decision?

 

[Dreamer]

Yes it would. Most of the time, it's purely business, and dispatch is over done over Qualcomm, or Computer call. However, on those 'borderline' calls, long deadhead, long wait, iffy conditions, etc.... I'm more likely to say yes to a couple of the dispatchers who don't 'sweet talk' and readily go "hey, this kinda sucks I know... but... could ya?"


Dale

 

[chefdennis]

Our dispatchers call before they send a load offer over the QC to see if a driver will take it as offered...you can bet who the dispatcher is make a difference...and not in just who they are but welll ill leave it at that...but yes it makes a difference....

 

[TeamCaffee]

We have turned down loads and then had the dispatcher call us with an attitude which just makes us dig our heels in harder no matter the story.

We have had other dispatchers call and explain the situation and have turned around and said yes to a load without changing a thing on the load.

I believe 100% the dispatcher can influence your decision on taking a load when they call you in person.

 

[Yesteryear]

Yes it does make a difference who the dispatcher is. With Tri-State my favorite dispatcher was Lou Ann. I accepted some loads from her that I would have turned down if anyone else asked. There were other dispatchers I would accept yucky loads from as well just because I liked him or her. The night guys were just awesome, boy they knew how to work that internet. The good ole days!

 

[iceroadtrucker]

We have turned down loads and then had the dispatcher call us with an attitude which just makes us dig our heels in harder no matter the story.

We have had other dispatchers call and explain the situation and have turned around and said yes to a load without changing a thing on the load.

I believe 100% the dispatcher can influence your decision on taking a load when they call you in person.

I Agree!!! The above is true!!! But so Ive found once U take that load that normaly U wouldnt many a time U are forgotten Unless it was by what I call a Load Angel.
Load Angels Like Elephants dont forget your good deeds.
But Load Angels are few and far Between.
There are Snakes in the Grass that will sit and lie to you to get you to take the load. Then Totaly forget what was done after the fact.
The Load Angels Know who they are and they are just that
True Angels in every since of the word. Thats my 2 bits
so any dispatchers on here answer the question are ya a Load Angel or a snake.
You be the choosing one.

 

[Turtle]

Dale took my answer, word for word.

Man, this is a thread that dispatchers should not be allowed to read. If they do, they'll be able to get all kinds of crappy loads covered.

 

[FIS53]

It's been this way since dispatchers came into existence. One or two would always outshine the others. Whether it is attitude, treatment of the drivers or the best, remembering the deeds. I've had this many a time so what do we do? We work with it and learn how to work around it (not always). It can be comical at times but hey it makes the job more interesting.

We've got two dispatchers and for some reason both fail to teach the customers that information is good. So they both give us calls with at times a gross lack of info which makes for several calls back and forth. One will admit he has little to no info and the other just says nothing a lot of the time. Frustrating!

One thing I do not like is several times after we've got a call on board and we're rolling, we call in and inform and then they ask "Do you have this part number aavxdu-1234-09gf in the load? Yeah not a simple part number but some stunned thing. So what to do? Pull over hop in back and find the packing slip or read every box or just say "Sorry can't read every box it's packed too well!". I can say training a dispatcher is always an exercise as they always think their right.
Rob

 

[TeamCaffee]

I Agree!!! The above is true!!! But so Ive found once U take that load that normaly U wouldnt many a time U are forgotten Unless it was by what I call a Load Angel.
Load Angels Like Elephants dont forget your good deeds.
But Load Angels are few and far Between.
There are Snakes in the Grass that will sit and lie to you to get you to take the load. Then Totaly forget what was done after the fact.
The Load Angels Know who they are and they are just that
True Angels in every since of the word. Thats my 2 bits
so any dispatchers on here answer the question are ya a Load Angel or a snake.
You be the choosing one.

You are right IRT and when you accept that load for a dispatcher you need to cover yourself on the other end. There are no favors remembered by the computer!
One of the items we often ask for is a layover of our choice.

 

[Steady Eddie]

Yes, I will cover a load that I would norm., turn down. There are some dispatchers that look after us and some that just come in for 8 hours and could care less. Now, if I am the only game in town and I turn it down not knowing they will have to sell the run.....if they let me know this, 99% of the time I will take it just so they will not have to sell it. However, there was that 1% last year.....

 

[Doggie Daddy]

Yes,I agree some dispatchers just have a knack for getting you to take a load that you would normally turn down.

That is why I never answer the phone,thank God for caller I.D.

 

[nightcreacher]

The word is,it's not a favor,your getting paid.
Saw a movie once,sometimes no doesnt mean no,means yes,I believe there are dispatchers that have seen the same movie.
Usually a back up load can be found to help out the load you are turning down,and sometimes a pay change,but most wont remember it being a favor

 

[pelicn]

We have our "favorite" dispatchers, but not because of things they've done for us, but because they are a pleasure to deal with. Dispatchers that know what is going on, and are immediately there to help if needed, or leave us alone to do our job.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

I got into a little tiff with our "load Planners" everything that could go wrong on the load did just that!

I said to them..if someone had actually thought this load out...they'd have seen the gaps....there was no planning at all...so "load planning " says...We don't take the calls...Customer service sets up the loads....

So I says so you are not load planners but in reality just "load distributioners?"

So after I got my butt in a knot (which I don't do very often) and arrived 25 minutes late Protect time was 5am ....

you guessed it...consignee did not open till 6am!! DOH!!!

 

[Mdbtyhtr]

Just an observation because I am still on the researching phase of this business... If a unit is the only one in the area, and the driver and dispatcher both know that, and the area is known to be poor for prospective freight, would they low ball the load offer to the unit to take advantage of the situation?

Scott

 

[LDB]

As a rule no, the dispatcher does not matter. A dry hole is a dry hole and it doesn't matter which witcher is holding the dowsing rod. If you are in this in a fully business like way then it doesn't matter who asks you to make a bad business decision. That said, 1. "there's an exception to every rule" and 2. unless there's a guaranteed follow up run there's no way to know what happens next after either the best load offer you ever had or the worst meaning that either one could be the opposite of what you expect when you hear it and accept/decline it.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

Just an observation because I am still on the researching phase of this business... If a unit is the only one in the area, and the driver and dispatcher both know that, and the area is known to be poor for prospective freight, would they low ball the load offer to the unit to take advantage of the situation?

Scott

It may be a situation where, for example, you're the only truck in Laredo, with Laredo being dead. You may be the only XYZ truck there, but there are many other companies that have trucks there.

 

[Doggie Daddy]

Just an observation because I am still on the researching phase of this business... If a unit is the only one in the area, and the driver and dispatcher both know that, and the area is known to be poor for prospective freight, would they low ball the load offer to the unit to take advantage of the situation?

Scott

My experience has been that the situation you described happens more often when there are more trucks in an area.

For example say that you are in Atlanta with 15 other trucks the same size as you,more often than not there will be many offers of cheap freight. The company knows that the trucks at the head of the line will refuse those offers,but the trucks at the back of the line will likely take them just to get out of town.

 

[xiggi]

I used to dispatch in the late 90's. There was certain drivers that would do about anything for me but not for another dispatcher. At the same time there was drivers that would not do anything out of the ordionary for me but another dispatcher might have a good relationship with one of those drivers and could get them to do something I could not. We were fully aware of this fact and believe me we would use that knowledge when deciding who was going to contact a driver with a questionable run. Now granted we were a small company 50 - 60 drivers so it was much easier for us to work as a team in the dispatch office than it is with some of the big companies.

 

[ccrider]

There are several dispatchers I will never accept an opportunity from at the first offered rate. We'll either get what we want or let the run go to another truck. This is due to these dispatchers either omitting important info or flat out telling lies about what is required on a load.

There is one dispatcher in particular that must have realized what we were doing and had a different dispatcher make the offer and then after we accepted, the dispatch reflected the dispatcher we had the issue with. This only adds to the list of dispatchers that can K.M.A.

On the other hand, we have our favorites as well. Some load opps are accepted hands down since we know and trust the dispatcher to be honest with both the info and offer amount.