Dispatch Services In General - Genuine Drivers' Insights

Hey folks!

I am glad to be a part of this community. Upon returning from Afghanistan, I embarked on starting my own business.

To be a fully transparent, I do own a small dispatch company and we are providing support services to the carriers. I'm eager to gather genuine insights from real drivers here :)

Now, I'd love to hear from you all about your honest thoughts on dispatch services in general.

Do you see them as a benefit? Or do you view them as an unnecessary additional cost, preferring to handle dispatching yourself?

Here are a few more questions to spark some online discussion:

Have you ever used dispatch services before? If so, what was your experience like?

What do you consider the most important factors when deciding whether to use dispatch services?

Do you believe dispatch services can help increase your earnings or save you some time?

For those who prefer self-dispatching, what are the main reasons behind that choice?

Thank you all and drive safe!!

Hey Cool Dispatcher , welcome to our forum!

I'm a company driver. Maybe that's why I'm not familiar with what you mean by "dispatch services." Are you a broker or a 3PL type operation? I'm seldom involved with this type service unless I get into an unusual backhaul scenario.

You'll find our website devoted to helping newcomers to trucking navigate their way into a successful career. Most of our members are either rookies or long time company drivers. We have a few O/Os among us, but not very many.

I'm afraid I can't be much help because my dispatcher and I are both on the same team and working to achieve the same goals.

I’m not entirely sure what you mean by dispatch services either. I’m not aware of any company that really lets their drivers pick and choose where they can go. I’ve heard of no forced dispatch into nyc but that’s about it. I think you are looking for mostly owner operators which we only have one active on this forum.

Welcome, I’m the different one bird mentioned. I’m an O/O with my own authority.

I’m constantly bombarded by “Dispatch Services”. We do not use one and don’t plan on using one. I haul for customers in very niche markets and rarely haul general freight

I have my own customers for any hauls I do out of my home area. Depending where it is going wether I try and find a backhaul or if I come home empty. Sometimes I make more coming back empty and grabbing another customer load. I have access to several load boards through relationships I have cultivated as well as a very small group of brokers that have their individual load boards.

Basically from talking with many dispatch services they are grabbing loads off of load boards. To me that is something I or my wife can do ourselves. I also am very very pickey on the brokers I will work with. There are alot of brokers that I will not work with for various reasons.

This is just my opinion, but if an O/O is only running off load boards with brokers they will not survive long term.

I wish you well!!

My typical clients are small carriers and we are legally speaking working on their behalf. We are carriers' team members.

Usually, the company owner also drives, and if they have 2-3 company drivers operating their trucks. With maybe several owner-operators. They charge the owner-operators 10-12% (with dispatch service included in that fee) so they don't have to obtain their own MC authority.

In this setup, carrier require a dispatch team to handle various tasks such as booking loads for all the trucks, communicating updates to brokers, managing initial setup packages and contracts, rescheduling appointments, advocating for issues like TONU, layover, and detention fees, as well as handling invoicing to factoring companies, and more.

Since the company owner is often driving and unable to manage these tasks, they opt to outsource them to dispatch services instead of hiring an in-house dispatch team.

Your company dispatcher and I essentially perform the same tasks. The only difference is that I work from my own office rather than being physically present in yours 😊

Hope this makes more sense to you now.