Truckers: This Is How You Eliminate Dispatching Errors

Dispatching is the cog that keeps truck-drivers moving. A truck dispatcher is responsible for the loads you carry, as well as the routes you take. As important as they are, dispatchers can occasionally create problems. Errors are bound to happen between a truck driver and their truck dispatcher. Some of these issues can easily be avoided. 

How Truck Dispatchers Work 

A truck dispatcher has a variety of duties that involve phone calls,  paperwork, and computers. They must find you loads that will pay the best, match your driving skill level, and fit your haul type (such as a tanker load or flatbed load). Dispatchers will communicate with you on the road, just as they communicate with shippers and receivers to arrange freight services. A dispatcher will also arrange the safest, most effective route for a driver. Finally, your dispatcher deals with paperwork for booking loads that involve billing, special permits, and invoices. 

Bad Luck With Dispatchers 

As a truck driver, you have certainly heard about dispatching problems. You may have even experienced it yourself.  Mistakes made by dispatchers could have you stuck in a location overnight, waiting to dock. A dispatcher may have sent you out to a location that will make it impossible to reach your next destination without messing up your hours. You or your trucking friends may just feel that your dispatcher is out to get you. Luckily, there are ways around miscommunication or difficulties with a dispatcher. 

Your Dispatcher Is Not Your Friend

As much as it may feel like your dispatcher is trying to make your life worse, they really aren’t. Bad experiences with your dispatcher may lead you to gossip about them, which will always find its way back to the source. Your dispatcher is not meant to be your best friend, but your coworker. They are doing their job, just as you are doing yours. Gossiping about them or regarding them poorly because of a bad trip will only make it harder to work together. If the issues with your dispatcher get to the point where it feels like it’s impossible to work with them, reach out to your employer, office administrator, or HR manager. 

Meet Your Dispatcher 

By meeting your dispatcher in person, you can get to know them before you work together. You will be able to encounter their personality, as well as how they work in the office. If you schedule to meet your dispatcher, you will be able to build a better relationship with them that will make communicating easier. 

Keep Calm and Drive On 

Driving on the road can be highly stressful, making it easy to become upset when a dispatcher makes a mistake. Remember, everyone makes mistakes! Keeping calm and communicating more positively with your dispatcher can make their job much easier on them. When you have the chance, thank your truck dispatcher for getting you where you need to go. When addressing a problem with them, keep a calm tone to avoid turning things into an argument. 

How to Fix Dispatcher Errors

We’ve covered several ways to make working with a dispatcher more beneficial for you.  However, people can be difficult to deal with no matter what you try.  More often than not, your dispatcher may be overworked and overly stressed and isn’t necessarily picking on you specifically.  So, in addition to our other suggestions, we offer a few more ways to fix dispatch errors and make life easier for everyone involved.  

1. Don’t blow up at the dispatcher when you find an error.  It could be an honest mistake.  Instead, address the problem in a respectful manner.  Your integrity and professionalism in the matter can make all the difference in your relationship with the truck dispatcher..
2. Occasionally, thank your dispatcher for giving you a good load, but avoid sounding like a brown-noser!
3. If none of the above works, and you’ve had enough, consider using a trucking management system that can plan error-free loads, routing, and more.

Trucking is stressful enough. Problems between drivers and dispatch only make things worse.  You can avoid stress by using our TMS system.  Imagine never being double-booked or dead-headed again!  Here’s a 30-day free trial so you can see why you want and need our comprehensive trucking management system.

End Dispatching Errors for Good 

Tired of depending on unreliable dispatchers who constantly make errors? What if I could promise to eliminate dispatching errors for good? At TruckingOffice, our trucking management software will prevent mistakes and keep everyone on the same wavelength. Our TMS will never double book and provides lane history, rate history, an address book, and load planning and optimizing. This software will also provide help with cash flow, expenses, maintenance, reports, and stats!