Chris Atkinson
Tuesday, May 16, 2017Managing a fleet of trucks is a lot easier when you have reliable, consistent drivers. The number one cause for driver turnover? Dispatchers.
Here’s a story drivers will know all too well:
It starts when John, the dispatcher, who fails to adequately plan Rick’s trip. John doesn’t factor in traffic or parking problems in the major city passes through.
In addition to that bad planning, John fails to take into account the shipper’s history. John knew that the shipper is consistently late loading, but did not factor this into trip planning. The result: a delayed start to a misplanned trip.
As a result, Rick will pray the price. Rick can’t meet the agreement John made with the shippers without violating the hours of service regulations.
John then tries to rely on the relationship he has with Rick to convince Rick to change his logs to make up for the mistakes in trip planning. Essentially, John tries to coerce Rick into misrepresenting the numbers “just this once.”
When Rick refuses, John resorts to speaking demeaningly to Rick. John treats Rick like the truck rather than as the person driving the truck, with no respect for the difficult job that Rick performs.
Rick is a good driver, and good drivers are quick to leave a fleet if their trips are mismanaged, if they are consistently required to do more hours than they log, and if they are treated poorly.
Of course, this is the story of a particularly bad dispatcher. Dispatchers are caught between the fleet’s customers and its drivers, and even good dispatchers may find themselves being like John because of bad communication or technology.
There is a way to build your dispatcher’s credibility to make sure that drivers stay with your fleet: use reliable software. FleetRover makes communicating with drivers easy, and ensures reliable, transparent trip planning.
Get a demo today to learn to manage your fleet with FleetRover.
