Truck dispatchers and truck drivers always work smoothly as a team. And if the truck driver has any problems with his or her freight or client, it’s up to the dispatch service to provide the most efficient solution for the existing problem.
Fleet Care is a full-service dispatch company for your trucking business. Reliable dispatch services can make your trucking logistics smarter and smoother: https://fleet.care/services/dispatch-services/.
Having reliable dispatchers makes trucking logistics times easier. A good dispatcher can be outsourced ‒ this is the kind of service you need in the trucking business if you want to achieve success. The dispatch office combines route finder responsibilities, troubleshooting, and freight management services. Basically, dispatchers facilitate the logistics to make every process more coordinated.
Particularly, this also means finding solutions to different problems that truck drivers experience quite commonly. We’ve covered only three of them in this article, but just so you know ‒ a dispatch service deals with a lot more possible issues that might occur.
Problem #1: Lumper fees
Imagine a pretty common situation every truck driver faces: the freight is being finally loaded (or unloaded), and just as you are about to leave, movers or a client are trying to charge you a lumper fee. You never even knew this particular order would go with a lumper fee. The situation for you as a truck driver is unpleasant, to say the least.
Usually, this happens when a client or a broker hires a third-party company to load and unload freight without informing the dispatch office about it. In the best-case scenario, your broker would apologize and solve the problem, but not everyone in this business is a nice person.
Another version of this happening: just as you’re about to leave, the client asks you to stay for unloading (which is not in your area of responsibility as a driver). Or, maybe, you have just arrived at point A and now you are also asked to help with loading. Sure, you can help, but these are services completely out of your area of responsibility if it wasn’t exclusively decided beforehand ‒ stuff like that counts as additional services and requires payment.
This problem is quite common and has many sides to it ‒ sometimes it’s all about paperwork difficulties, sometimes it’s all about miscommunication. Of course, a good broker would inform you beforehand if you were to be charged lumper fees, but it’s not like every broker out there is a good one. So, paying out of your pocket and then hassling the broker with calls is not the additional working experience you would want to have.
Qualified company dispatchers make sure every order goes smoothly right from finding the best conditions to work on to solving any problems that might occur along the way.
Problem #2: Unpaid detention times
Everyone hates waiting more than expected. Unfortunately, waiting for a time longer than discussed previously until the freight is fully loaded or unloaded is something that can occur quite often. Sometimes it’s the client’s fault, sometimes freight brokers give unrealistic time frames “just in case”, and sometimes the responsibility is on third-party workers doing pack, loading, or unload.
Extra waiting time (usually it starts after two hours of waiting) can be paid additionally. The pricing is different from driver to driver and from the trucking company to trucking company, but the main point remains the same: truck drivers are entitled to financial compensation for the extra time they have been staying at the same place during their work.
Some companies and brokers don’t want to pay detention times, making it look like they don’t know anything about it, or like it’s not even a thing. Nobody wants to lose extra money, but you as a truck driver spending your working hours on additional waiting are entitled to compensation for the time you spent. Besides, losing time with one load means you potentially lose other loads ‒ and time is money here, literally.
The dispatch service takes care of your time, making sure your schedule won’t make you lose any good loads while you’re waiting extra time on the loading or unloading spot.
Problem #3: Undisclosed information about the freight
And finally, another problem that can come out of miscommunication with a broker or company, is the lack of important information about the freight. Things like weight, special notes about packages, and pricing matter ‒ after all, the quality and safety of the job depend on these things.
Sometimes the freight weighs more than announced earlier. And while yes, bigger loads mean more money, freight weight is a deciding factor for truck safety that cannot be dismissed. Truck safety is something that should be taken seriously because your truck has to comply with truck safety regulations in order to operate legally.
Also, you as a truck driver have to know any special needs for some packages if there are any. Some freight requires a certain temperature within the truck to be transported safely, and some items are fragile and/or need extra fixation. Knowing about these nuances is especially useful when you have a significant load with a lot of different items.
Some companies’ guards can ask you for a pass on their territory when you’re doing commercial freight transportation. There might be a possibility that your client or company forgot to warn you about this, so this is another thing a dispatcher can take care of to make sure your order goes without trouble on the way.
Any problems can be solved. Trucking is a stressful business, but with a good dispatch service, every driver can feel more comfortable even around problematic cases. All in all, when the logistics are managed the smart way, you as a truck driver have more time and more opportunities to take care of bigger loads. Don’t let problematic cases ruin your schedule and your revenue ‒ hiring full-service dispatchers can relieve you of the burden of taking care of everything at once.