Dispatch Favors

Hi all, was just wondering. Dispatchers can do one favors, but what favors can one do for dispatchers?

Serah D., great question!

You will find that if you are a reliable, efficient driver who doesn't send your dispatcher mean, arrogant, condescending and insulting messages over the qualcomm you will be doing them a huge favor. For a dispatcher to have a driver they can count on to get things done without always needing to ask them endless questions and wasting their time with your complaints you will be considered a driver who will get some favors from your dispatcher. A big part of their job is "babysitting" a bunch of cry-babies and always needing to tell them how to get their job done. You keep yourself off of that babysitting list and you will be in good standing.

Now there will also be times (this happened to me once) that you will have just finished driving for almost nine hours and you delivered your product and just gotten parked at a truck stop for a nice break and your dispatcher will call you and need you to go rescue a load from another driver who didn't manage their time right and can't get to their destination. It's gonna take every bit of your last two hours and then a little to get it done, but you do it - they don't forget stuff like that.

Or you might even be called on to do what I had to do today - go rescue a load from another driver, only to find out that it weighs right at fifty thousand pounds, and no one has gotten a permit for it. It's almost late, and they need you to get it where it belongs. So you drive like crazy, taking an alternate route of your own creation just to avoid three scales. That's a huge favor, and they appreciate it when you are someone who knows how to "get er done".

I am in no way saying you should run illegal loads, but sometimes it just makes sense to do what it takes or end up sitting somewhere watching old re-runs on the Truckers lounge T.V. They will set you up with a really nice load when you cover for them like that. It's a bit of a dance where you scratch each others back, but the dance has to be played out fairly or it's not worth the risks.

Serah, here's a link to the story about me using up the last of my hours to do a favor for my dispatcher , scroll down the page to Day 5 and you will find the whole story there.

Old School, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Have a great weekend. "And she curtseys".

"And she curtseys".

Do truck drivers "curtsey?" I've never seen a truck driver curtsey . . . isn't that like when Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan (in 'A League of Their Own') says, "Are you crying? Are you crying? ARE YOU CRYING? There's no crying! THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!"

I think it is a law somewhere that truck drivers are not allowed to curtsey, and you don't want to brake any laws, now, do you??

Stephen E. Birch