Phone Wait Times
- Thread starter dancorn
- Start date
Slo-Ride
Veteran Expediter
What bothers me more then being on hold is the fact why are we on hold.. More then likely it is because the phones are tied up with drivers calling in with questions for info that should be sent to the truck in the first place..
Example would be: Are you sending my pay sheet,, Travel order #... Freight does not go here or no freight at this location.. Did you get my message, I sent it 20 min ago. A whole host of reasons calls can be avoided.. I think a time study on the phones would reveal a few manhours each shift is being wasted on calls that could have been avoided..
Boy oh boy fail to answer your phone within 3 rings and your forgotten about and most dispatches move on..
Example would be: Are you sending my pay sheet,, Travel order #... Freight does not go here or no freight at this location.. Did you get my message, I sent it 20 min ago. A whole host of reasons calls can be avoided.. I think a time study on the phones would reveal a few manhours each shift is being wasted on calls that could have been avoided..
Boy oh boy fail to answer your phone within 3 rings and your forgotten about and most dispatches move on..
My personal best is 72 minutes shattering my previous record of 38 minutes. http://www.expeditersonline.com/forum/general-expediter-forum/40752-hold-record-shattered.html
Waiting 27 minutes on hold would be very frustrating I agree. I also imagine they were busy I hope taking load orders to keep everyone busy. It seems like it is really a interesting balance to keep enough people trained to take orders and answer questions from drivers and not be paying to many employees.
When ever we get frustrated waiting for someone to answer the phones we remember our days with a large truck load carrier. While we did not have to do a departure call we had to have permission to do just about everything else. These dispatchers did not have time to deal with drivers so QC messages where ignored and when we were finally desperate we knew it was at least an hour wait to talk to a person and sometimes even longer. Bob was a driver so he had no authority to ok any maintenance to keep us running or to purchase anything to keep the truck running. We also had designated fuel stops and sometimes that was to only get ten gallons of fuel... Oh yes they did tell us where to stop and how much fuel to purchase. Sometimes the stops where in the same city. No we do not miss those days and these experiences make it much easier for us to have patience.
When ever we get frustrated waiting for someone to answer the phones we remember our days with a large truck load carrier. While we did not have to do a departure call we had to have permission to do just about everything else. These dispatchers did not have time to deal with drivers so QC messages where ignored and when we were finally desperate we knew it was at least an hour wait to talk to a person and sometimes even longer. Bob was a driver so he had no authority to ok any maintenance to keep us running or to purchase anything to keep the truck running. We also had designated fuel stops and sometimes that was to only get ten gallons of fuel... Oh yes they did tell us where to stop and how much fuel to purchase. Sometimes the stops where in the same city. No we do not miss those days and these experiences make it much easier for us to have patience.
The advantage of dealing with a small outfit. Wait time on the phone? What's that?
I have to go back to when I worked with the courier outfit a few years ago. Man, I could tell you stories that make you wonder how they stayed in business. It's not to wonder that their ad is in Craigslist EVERY DAY looking for drivers, since I can well imagine that retention of drivers is abysmal.
I have to go back to when I worked with the courier outfit a few years ago. Man, I could tell you stories that make you wonder how they stayed in business. It's not to wonder that their ad is in Craigslist EVERY DAY looking for drivers, since I can well imagine that retention of drivers is abysmal.
I was hoping someone would bring this to attention and now there is a thread on it that isn't going anywhere. 
Therein lies the drawback to the "it could always be worse" mindset: nothing gets better, because those who could effect changes don't, because they think it's all just fine.
It's a tough line to draw, between speaking up, and kvetching, lol.
Long hold times are really unacceptable when the driver is under dispatch, though. And IMO, playing "commercials" during that time is just cruel. [And stupid - it makes me angry, which isn't a good place to be when they finally pick up the call.]
No, dancorn, all expedite companies are not like this.
FedEx Custom Critical was slow to answer the phone and often indirect or evasive when we called them for info but when we moved to Landstar, that stopped. The difference is in the system and in the respect companies have for their contractors.
At Landstar, self-employed independent agents get the business and dispatch the trucks. The company takes care of things like compliance, recruiting, orientation, HAZMAT training, etc. When we'd call the company about such things, we seldom were put on hold for long. If the phone was not answered and we left a message, calls were promptly returned.
Communication about loads was spectacular because the agents who dispatch the trucks are the same agents who call on customers to book the business. Agents do not work at the company headquarters building. They work in small offices at locations all over the country. In the interests of customer service, these agents know the importance of answering the phone quickly and they always had the needed information at hand.
It was often the case at Landstar pickups that the shipper had personally met the agent we were dealing with. That is because, to develop the account, the agent had visited the company, met the people and toured the site.
Staff at FedEx CC is often recruited from the high school nearby or customer service positions at other companies in the area. Those who stick around work their way up through the ranks and some become dispatchers. That gives you a system where dispatchers who have not even been in, say New Mexico, are serving customers there. With Landstar, it is almost certain that the agent who is dispatching freight from a large New Mexico shipper is personally familiar with the shipper's facility because he or she has been there.
Another difference is in what Landstar expects of and trusts its contractors with that FedEx CC did not. It was refreshing to talk directly with shippers and consignees to do our own pick up and delivery confirmation calls. They can provided directions and parking tips in ways no one else can. Often, they provided additional info about the load that enabled us to adjust schedules for the better. We did not have to call dispatch for such info because we talked directly to the customers we served.
Think about it. If you are a company that dispatches 500 loads a day and you require your drivers to make departure calls and dispatchers to make confirmation calls on every pickup and delivery, that is 1,500 phone calls going into and out of dispatch every day; 1,500 phone calls!!!
How many people do you have to hire and support to handle that many calls? At Landstar HQ, the answer is zero because agents manage the phone calling, not centralized dispatch.
At the agencies, the phone call count is greatly reduced because the drivers make the confirmation calls and departure calls are not required. Some agents liked to be notified when a pickup was made and drivers would call then if they wanted their fuel card loaded by the agent. But beyond that, the call count is greatly reduced.
When we made such calls, they were brief. "This is Phil in Truck 3772. Your pickup at (shipper name and location) is complete. We are on our way. Thank you (agent name) for this piece of business." If we got voice mail, that was the message we left. There was no need to hold and no need to call back.
If something happened like the consgnee called to change the delivery time, there was no need to notify anyone. The consignee already knew and we knew. The agent cared only that the consgnee was well served. This reduced the number of calls and freed up everyone's telephone for other uses. One agent told us once that she could tell when someone had come to Landstar new from FedEx because the newbies always felt the need to notify her about every little thing. It took a little adjusting to get past that and get used to the idea that we were trusted and empowered with more at Landstar.
Companies with large, centralized dispatch systems are more complex and less direct. Where you have dispatchers, you also have managers and managers above them. Where Landstar agents are on the street developing good customers and on the phone developing good relationships with drivers, a hierarchy of managers at a large, centralized-dispatch company is continually viewing the cost center and profit center numbers and fiddling around with policy changes intended to make the managers look good.
Such companies end up with dispatch departments that feature voluminous policy manuals, employee scorecards, scheduled reviews, company parties to improve employee morale and other such bureaucratic trappings. Landstar agencies are small in comparison, often tiny such that some very big agents work out of their home offices.
A network of independent BCO's (contractors) and independent agents (seasoned professionals who have developed a strong book over the years) is naturally predisposed to be more efficient and effective in telephone use than companies that have large, centralized dispatch systems.
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And to mention their income directly depends on that level of service....no load, no pay for them either...at "Other" carriers most could careless if a load cancels....it does not come out of their pockets...
