Check Calls

Every dispatcher has made this call: “Hey, just checking in, where you at?” The driver is doing 68 on I-40, hands-free isn’t always legal to answer mid-lane-change, and the answer you get is “somewhere past Amarillo, I think.” You write down a guess, hang up, and move to the next load on your board. Multiply that by every load, every four hours, every day, and you’ve built an entire job function around asking a question the truck already knows the answer to. ...

Ask a dispatcher how their day went and you’ll usually get a laugh before an answer. Most days don’t go according to any plan they made at 6 a.m. A driver’s running late to a pickup, a broker wants a check call they already gave twenty minutes ago, and somebody’s still waiting on a rate confirmation that was supposed to go out before lunch. By the time you add it all up, dispatching isn’t one job. It’s five jobs wearing one name badge. ...