Why You Need to Be Friends with Dispatch

Office workers at trucking companies are in charge of dispatch, ensuring HOS compliance, and handling driver check-ins, OSD, billing, and more. They work closely with the drivers, a group that includes both company drivers and owner operators. Some drivers are easy to work with, happy to pitch in during a crunch, polite, and willing to compromise when needed. Others are surly, uncooperative, and condescending, with nothing but contempt for office folks. When it is time to make decisions about jobs, guess which drivers get the plum loads and bonuses?

Many drivers don’t think much of dispatchers and support staff, but that’s because they don’t stop to consider that they wouldn’t have any loads to haul without them, even in owner operator trucking. Where would they be without the salespeople signing on customers, and the office people arranging pickups and dispatching loads, and so on? These people are the first piece in getting work for you to do. That’s why nurturing good relationships with your dispatch and office staff is important.

You need your dispatcher to assign you loads and communicate with the customer for you in case of delays or if you have questions. They have the power to give you great loads and lots of home time, or keep you on the road waiting for loads for days on end. You and your dispatcher (and for that matter your dock workers, mechanics, and other support people) must work together as a team because you are a team.

Not only will being a team player help you get better loads and move ahead in your career, but it also provides you with people willing to help you when things go bad. Don’t be the driver that everyone in the office dreads. Make their jobs easier by being the driver everyone loves.