Different carriers have different policies, procedures and practices with dispatch. The way to make things easier for dispatchers, and for yourself, is to learn how exactly your dispatchers and dispatch system works and adapt to it. And if that particular dispatch environment does not work for you, find a new carrier where it will.
Diane and I have been with our carrier (FedEx Custom Critical) since 2003. We have never once expected to be treated as anything other than a number and available truck. With a fleet size that ranges from 1,200 to 1,500 trucks, and with only a tiny fraction of that number of dispatchers on duty at any one time, it would be unrealistic to expect them all to know us like family or deal with us in anything more than a cold, efficient, transactional way.
That said, many dispatchers have come to know us by name over they years, simply because we have stuck around and they have too. Those who know us by name know us as "good" contractors who can get the job done and who don't raise our voices or lose our professional demeanor when we are upset.
We get on and off the phone quickly, keeping the conversations short because we know they have other things to do. We generally don't call dispatch unless it pertains to a specific load. We don't expect dispathers to keep us moving. That is not their job. Their job is to cover loads.
If we find ourselves laid over too long someplace, we don't call in and beg to be relocated or cry for freight they do not have. We call and tell them we have made the decision to move and ask, "Where can you best use us?" Dispatchers don't like cry babies any more than we do so we try to not be cry babies ourselves.
We listen close when dispatchers compliment us. It is interesting to note exactly what they are saying. It often goes something like, "I never have to worry about a load after it is dispatched to you." Or, "When I put you on a load, I know there won't be any problems."
Notice how they put the compliment in their terms. We are good contractors not because we are good, but because the dispatchers won't have any problems once we are on a load.
Dispatchers don't want any problems and we give them none. That's how to make it easier for dispatchers. That is not to say we don't call when genuine issues develop with a load or a customer. But when we call a dispatcher with those kind of problems, it is to work together with the dispatcher to satisfy a customer and make the load a success.
It is not difficult to look good in the eyes of dispatch. Figure out how the system works. Adjust your expectations accordingly. Give dispatch what they want (while protecting your own business interests, of course). And rely on the fact that the blowhards and idiots who enter and leave the fleet will make you look great while you simply do your job and keep your voice down.
In time, you will become known as one of the "good" contractors who is good because you don't create problems that dispatchers have to solve.
That's my perspective developed in my experience in contracting with only one carrier whose dispatchers themselves are well trained and almost always professional in dealing with us. Our dispatchers are one of our carrier's strengths and one of the reasons we stick around.
