Up Front

What drivers want from dispatch

In times of trouble—not the least of which is a persistent annual driver turnover that exceeds 100 percent at most carriers—is there any more important relationship in the trucking industry than that between an over-the-road professional and his or her dispatcher? Given that the driver’s primary contact with the company is a dispatcher, it seems that carriers should screen potential dispatcher hires at least as carefully, if not more so, than they screen drivers.
     What makes a good dispatcher? That’s the question we put to drivers for this month’s “Say What?” question (see page 36). Drivers realize that the company has to make money, and in order to do that, it has to meet its clients’ demands, but drivers also expect their company, and in particular, their dispatcher, to have some understanding of what it’s like out on the road. The drivers we talked to didn’t necessarily believe that dispatchers have to be ex-drivers, but almost all of them want their dispatcher to have some “real world” knowledge of the industry beyond what they might have learned in college.
     As one driver put it, “A good dispatcher will try to get you to deliver the loads that have to be delivered—looking out for the company—but they will also be looking out for your home time and the runs that you like.”