ODFL | What are the qualifications to be a dispatcher ??

JIM BOB

06/47-08/20
Rest In Peace
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Is there a I.Q. level they must attain ?? Do they have to know the difference between a dolly and Dolly Parton ?? Do they know all those lines in a log book end up in a total ?? Do they recognize the T/M by his face....Any body know anymore qualifications ???
 
one probable important qualification is that the dispatcher can not be more qualified than the person that hires them
:bgroovy: :bgroovy:
 
Friend of the frog said:
Dispatcher is the hardest job on the truckline. Not defending any particular idiot, but it is a tough job.
No way here. Outbound dockworker is probably the hardest job. Sure would not want to be a outbound supervisor. Our city dispatchers do not have it to bad. All the computer dispatching make it where they do not even have to know the city. Central linehaul dispatchers have odd hours.
 
I was inbound superviser for a year and a half and I am back to driving. Inbound superviser starts Sunday night at 530pm or so. So I left my house and waved to all my neighbors BBQing. Get out around 600 or 700am. We worked anywhere from 25-40 inbounds. If 1 person calls off its that much harder. Then during the week the Linehaul gets back around 800 to 930. All that freight needs to be on the peddles AT 900....impossible. Now every driver is complaining this skid should be in front of this skid and you have been busting you butt all night and all anyone can do is complain. Its very stressful, and the hours are not family freindly. Driving is a cakewalk.
 
sparky said:
No way here. Outbound dockworker is probably the hardest job. Sure would not want to be a outbound supervisor. Our city dispatchers do not have it to bad. All the computer dispatching make it where they do not even have to know the city. Central linehaul dispatchers have odd hours.


I/B supervisor is the most important front line supervisor. He sets the table for the entire week on his first shift. If he screws something up you are playing catch up all week.

However, he deals with his men and his freight. He needs to know his runs, his men and he is set.

O/B supervisor is the tit job. Again all he is doing is getting his plan ready and when the freight hits, BOOM, make it happen. Even at a busy terminal an O/B supervisor is loading maybe 20 points, while the I/B sup is loading 20-30 runs and trying to set up dispatch.

As long as you have a good crew, who respects you, you will make your cuts and you go home and sleep decent hours.


Disptach is relying on his I/B to set up his day and in turn needs to set up his O/B. He is also the only front line supervisor who interacts with customers on a minute by minute basis. That is the wild card, my friend.

Your dispatcher is paid to make his own decisions and those decisions are based on numbers, sales, customer service, traffic, pesonalities of your work force. All things that can change from day to day.

Again, it does not give guy a license to be an a-hole, but it really is a tough job. You get pulled in a lot of different directions, by a lot of different people, all with different agendas.
 
Just keep me in a truck away from all that mess! I definetely wouldn't enjoy working on a dock where there's barely any space finding freight around 6 forklifts buzzing by at the speed of light. I give credit to all dock folks :)
 
Yeah I have been a master of all trades at a small barn. Hopefully will never get into middle management again. The city dispatchers we got have it a lot better than they use to. With all the computer gadgets they have and the help they have around the barn.
 
Friend of the frog said:
I/B supervisor is the most important front line supervisor. He sets the table for the entire week on his first shift. If he screws something up you are playing catch up all week.

However, he deals with his men and his freight. He needs to know his runs, his men and he is set.

O/B supervisor is the tit job. Again all he is doing is getting his plan ready and when the freight hits, BOOM, make it happen. Even at a busy terminal an O/B supervisor is loading maybe 20 points, while the I/B sup is loading 20-30 runs and trying to set up dispatch.

As long as you have a good crew, who respects you, you will make your cuts and you go home and sleep decent hours.


Disptach is relying on his I/B to set up his day and in turn needs to set up his O/B. He is also the only front line supervisor who interacts with customers on a minute by minute basis. That is the wild card, my friend.

Your dispatcher is paid to make his own decisions and those decisions are based on numbers, sales, customer service, traffic, pesonalities of your work force. All things that can change from day to day.

Again, it does not give guy a license to be an a-hole, but it really is a tough job. You get pulled in a lot of different directions, by a lot of different people, all with different agendas.


I agree with you FOTF. Thats one job I would never want.
 
You know being strung out on coffee and cigarettes, makes the brain a little less effective, so that may be the reason they are all a little on the obnoxious side.
 
frog you hit the nail on the head:chairshot: its like the domino effect. If inbound goes bad, city drivers get out late, they get back late, linehaul leaves late and gets back late and its all in a big circle and your just spending the whole week trying to catch up.
 
Probably the truth is any one supervisor or crew can ruin everything for everybody. I just brought up our OB supervisor because he did not use to have any backup. 5 pm and he was the only boss in the terminal. That has changed now we have three.
 
Your Feight, My Freight, Who's Freight

Really use to **** me off when you would here that's "inbounds or outbounds" We're not touching it !

We had a Muskogee driver who came back late everyday. Worked on muscle cars and drag raced them too. He would stop in Ok at all the junk yards looking for parts or wash his truck and sleep. anyway he always had about 10,000 pounds of MSP freight that would stil be sitting there the same nightbecause outbound wouldn't unload it because it suppose to be inbounds.

Meanwhile running norther Iowa in the winter time sometimes with a empty back box wasn't that appealing. Snow/high winds?
Finally had to bring the terminal mngr involved to get trailer empty to reload MSP freight on my 9pm out time.

Everybody's freight ! is the way I looked at it.
I usually looked at the bills to see if any city freight (usually didn't) My only "hot freight" was any full pup going east bound because we had a couple of teams in there every day so i could afford a nap most of the time and still make it back knowing my trailer was last in line to be broke or added to which was another reason bidding the run I bid on never had real hot freight.
 
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