Sometimes it can be very difficult dealing with dispatch, and especially the load planners that are behind the dispatchers. I’ve been with my husband now on a few trips and I’ve seen some of the crap that he has to go through when dealing with certain people. I’m telling’ ya……..I guess all I can say is “WOW”. Being with him the last couple of trips, he’s had to T-call loads when they could’ve been delivered because of the miscommunication where scheduling is concerned. There it is again – I’ve said it before – communication is key!

In my previous stories I haven’t addressed this issue, but I think it needs to be done and now’s the time. For all of you “newbies” that are just coming into this career, I’ll bet that if you ask any “old timer” that’s been behind the wheel for a while about dispatchers and load planners, they’ll tell you that when their mouths are moving, they’re lying about something. Well, I’m here to inform you that sometimes it’s not the dispatchers that are lying, they’re just following the directions of what the load planners are telling them. So if you want to get angry at someone for how you’re being dispatched, it may be the load planner that’s to blame. I’ve heard so many truckers bitch and complain about their dispatchers, but not often is it directed at the planners for what they do (or don’t do for that matter.)

Too bad these load planners can’t be put into a truck and ride along for a trip (or several, for that matter). It’s too bad it’s not a job requirement, because if it was, I think y’all would be scheduled more appropriately. And that ride-along policy should go for dispatchers as well. They would know how to schedule loads so that it wouldn’t interrupt your sleep time for pick ups and drop offs, so that you wouldn’t have to push yourself to get to your destinations on time, to be able to have less stress while out on the road and you wouldn’t have to tear pages out of you log books to make your time requirement look legal when in all reality you don’t get to drive that way.

What they don’t seem to take into consideration are factors that affect the level of fatigue a driver will feel regarding things like weather conditions, times you have to sit because your load isn’t ready, or times you were given the wrong time of arrival. Situations like this are very tiring and affects the truck driver’s level of fatigue, which is a safety hazard to all involved.

For all of the load planners out there reading this – please – communication, communication, communication! Find out what the driver’s daily schedule is, how much sleep he/she has gotten, and when their 10 hours of sleeper time is up before you set them up with a load. My husband just got done going through that kind of crap.  continue to page 2 –>

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