Drivers-Dispatcher relationship

Put in your dues and find a better company or local. In the freight biz you will always miss days you need off. Seems like the only time they might care is if someone died in your family, but if they are alive tuff nails and drive.

 

Yep, that's trucking! Usually a dispatcher will get you home a day before or day after. They do want to keep you out as long as possible but sometimes in trucking that's just the way it works out. Sometimes it's out of their hands. Now if you are an O/O you can drive home from wherever you please. You just have to pay for the fuel, not really the best way to make money. This is one of the greatest reasons to stay away from the mega carriers. The dispatchers are assigned so many drivers they don't know who's who. You are just a number. At the smaller companies you have a relationship with your dispatcher, for better or worse, in sickness and in health! Both of you are working to make money for each other so there is a better working atmosphere. They also strive to not send you crappy loads or to crappy places because it immediately affects their pay too! The big companies could care less. They are getting paid no matter what and if you don't like it there is another new face next in line! Good luck to you, seems like you have a grasp on trucking!

 

Bull squeeze. When you give them notice and they fail in their duties ask to speak to their manager and have them replaced. Let them know why.

In general it is a planner in a larger company deciding the runs and a dispatcher unwilling to fight for his driver.

 

Dispatchers have a job, just like you have a job. Some dispatchers drove, some didn't. Some are also fleet managers or driver managers. Most are salaried or hourly employees; some get percentage. At some carriers, the driver manager relays your request for a particular load/direction you need to go to the dispatcher or dispatchers. There may not be any freight at a particular moment that suits your particular needs. I've been empty in Indiana and needing to get home to Oregon. The only loads went to New Jersey and that's where I went. In trucking, you follow the freight. Twice in 10 years I drove myself home, once from Utah to Oregon when I lived there, and once from Arizona to northern California. But I was an owner-operator. I realize that a company driver won't have that option. I've also had loads that got me home, literally: you wouldn't think there'd be truckload freight to Grass Valley, CA (population 13,000) from Cleveland (light bulbs, plastic garbage cans, and ceiling fans), or Dallas (pasta and canned vegetables), or Laredo (grass seed), or Ft. Wayne (computer parts)!

"How do you keep a dispatcher from ******* with you and not getting you home?" is pure paranoia. They're not "*******" with you, they're not sitting around thinking of ways to make your life miserable. They can only dispatch the loads they have. And, you never know, sometimes dispatchers are working overtime and they're not home when they'd rather be.

If "can't get home" becomes a regular thing, then you need to find another carrier--I know that's easier said than done--but all carriers operate under the same basic economic rule: no loads or miles means no money for the carrier, the hourly employees, and for the drivers.

What can you do? It sucks, it's d**n irritating, at times it's like begging, but you have to keep asking. Sometimes, you'll hit the target. BOL.

 

A dispatcher can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Most of the time it is up to you which way it works out. There are some dispatchers out there that are just total douchebags as well as drivers that are. I've never worked for a dispatcher that was paid on a commission based on what there drivers do though. I have a couple of former family members that were dispatchers and they were paid hourly just like any other job.

 

I have worked for two that led me to believe they were commission.

Comments based like performance or loads for the week, miles ran, loads processed and I really need this done by such day.

No reason for a dispatcher to get so riled. Ask them and they get real defensive.

Had one company where the head dispatcher said the dispatchers had a financial interest in the driver performance.

 

I guess I could see that at the bigger companies. I have never worked for one. I've only worked for small companies and never had to deal with that.