In this industry – we hear a lot of negative things about dispatchers. Some of them are rude and rather inconsiderate when it come to the way they treat their drivers. Others simply don’t have a good enough understanding of a driver’s lifestyle to understand that their demands may not be feasible or fair. – Unfortunately, we don’t hear nearly enough about the hard-working and considerate dispatchers out there that keep things running smoothly for their drivers and their company.
We know they’re out there, and we love to hear about them! We found one dispatcher’s old AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread on Reddit, and appreciated what he had to say.
Check out the whole thread here:
IAmA dispatcher at a large trucking company. I’ve heard it all, so AMA.
submitted 1 year ago by TheDudeAmI
- I’ve been working at a trucking company for awhile now. We have 900+ trucks, and each one of our drivers have an interesting personality, which manifests in funny ways.
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TheDudeAmI (The Dispatcher)
- I was a driver so I perfectly understand their plight. Our dispatchers that were previously drivers are always more liked and better received than the guys who have never driven, and sometimes ask too much of the drivers.
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TheDudeAmI (The Dispatcher)
- I’ve gotten calls about some of our drivers being found dead in their trucks, or being informed that one of our drivers had died at home. It’s hard to hear when you’re used to talking to a lot of these guys every day. A lot of times, they don’t have anyone to talk to, and haven’t been home in 4 or 5 weeks, so I’m the guy they open up to. They’ll talk about marriage problems, problems with their kids, stuff like that, and it really feels like I know a lot of these guys pretty well. Which is strange, because most of them I haven’t ever met face to face, and a lot of them I have no idea what they look like.
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Freshenstein (A Driver)
- Meeting your dispatcher for the first time is always disorienting. I’ve NEVER come close to picturing what mine looked like. Of course I want my female ones to look like Jessica Alba (back in Dark Angel days).
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Johnny82 (A Curious Redditor)
- All dispatchers probably know more about people than than the masses. Do some of the drivers also tell you shit you probably shouldn’t know?
TheDudeAmI (The Dispatcher)
- Without a doubt. But by all means, if I have a few extra minutes I’ll listen to what they have to say.
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TheDudeAmI (The Dispatcher)
- I’ve had some close calls while on the phone with the driver. I was on the phone with a guy who was on I-25 going north into Wyoming, which is sort of notorious for being really windy. I was helping him with something when he just starts to freak out. His truck started to sway really bad (I think they had something like 70 mph winds). He didn’t tip over, but he got almighty close. I will say though, we’ve had several driver turn their trucks over in that same 50 mile stretch. One time I had a driver call me after he’d turned his truck over. Obviously he was in distress, but I guess he just hit redial on his phone, and I happened to be the last person he had called. So I called the cops and got them out there. He ended up having a broken collarbone, and his wife, who was riding with him, had a broken arm. By the way, this was on I-25 going into Wyoming.
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TheDudeAmI (The Dispatcher)
- The best way I’ve found is to promise them home time, or kind of use the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” approach. But the best way is to earn the drivers respect, and make him like you. If your driver likes you and knows you’ll take care of him, sometimes there’s not a lot they won’t do for you.
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While delving through this thread, we also came across a thoughtful article that was submitted to the Star Tribune by a dispatcher about one of his drivers entitled, That truck driver you flipped off? Let me tell you his story.
Not only do these two dispatchers understand how tough it is to be a driver, they also care about the people they’re working with – weather or not they can put a face to the name of their drivers. Have you had a great dispatcher that treated you with respect, and went out of their way to make you job easier? – We would love to hear about them!