First off, no where do I believe that blonds are ditzy. Anyone can be ditzy every once in awhile. Neither did I ever believe that there was such a thing as a steriotypical ditzy blond until now.
I'm sorry, but this lady is that dumb. I'll give her a little lee way that she is brand new. There are still some things I'm really shaking my head at.
The lee way I'm giving her is during the past three weeks she has messed up my husband's runs. New to dispatching, and that should be expected. She messes up a run, so my husband couldn't deliver at the scheduled time. She reschudles the delivery for 5am the next day. That was what he was told.
Ditzy blond, she dispatches my husband to pick up a load at 10pm when he is already under a load that needs to be delivered at 5am the next day.
Not sure which one this falls under, when my husband goes to deliver at 5am, they tell him he isn't scheduled. He had to sit at the shipper for a couple of hours. Then they tell him that his load has been refused, and he is not allowed to sit there. They let him deliver the next day.
New dispatcher problem that he isn't getting off the weekend he requests off. Fine, she should learn hopefully quickly exactly where he lives and how to get him home. She forgets one of the requests, so will get him home the following week.
The second week, she tells him to go home. The problem is that he is in Philly, and he lives near Pittsburg 7 hours away. If he would have come home, he would have only had 12 hours at home, would not have had a 34 hour reset, and would have been late with the load.
He sends a message telling her that he didn't get home.
Ditzy blond: The one time she called him up and asked him why he was at such and such place that the computer told her he was at. She was pratically chewing him out. He finally was able to tell her that her information was wrong. He was near the drop off location. It seemed like she was trying to cover herself by asking why he drove through a particlular place. He had to explain his routing to her and that the place was along the route.
I don't know how many times he had to explain to her that he couldn't make a run, because she forgot to calculate in the mandatory 10 hours all truck drivers need to take. The one time he had to tell her he had to take his ten and he was tired and couldn't drive.
She can't understand that he couldn't stop his 14 hour clock. She thought he could could be driving 8 in the morning, somehow stop his clock, and deliver in the early am when it would be illegal to drive.
My husband is a day time driver, and told her that he will refuse to drive in the extremely early am hours. Some drivers love those hours, but my husband is better off sitting during those hours. No matter how much rest he gets, his body always gets tired during those hours and he has a problem staying awake. She has this mindset that all drivers are super truckers who can and are able to drive at any time during the day or night when needed. Actually my husband told her tthat is hampered alot by the hos rules. He is putting his foot down with her on this issue though. If it isn't safe for him to drive those hours, I would think the dispatcher would take that into consideration. My husband's old dispatcher had no problems with this.
I'm not sure which catagory this falls under, she thought he got home twice already.
This is the 4th week he has been out, and he is still not home. I called and talked to her since my husband really needs to come home to take a look at a house I'm interested in before it gets snatched up by someone else. I actually called her. I avoid at all costs calling my husband's work place.
Ditzy blond: She questioned me - wasen't he home last weekend? This will make it three times she thought he got home the previous weekend. I said no. I made it very clear that this was the 4th week he as been out when he asked to be home three times already. I kept my mouth shut so as not to get her angry and mess with my hubby. She messed up yet another run. He picked up in NY and had two drop offs in New Jersey. I forget exactly what went wrong, but he had to sit from Friday to Monday before he could make his delivery on Monday. He was only an hour away from the place.
I'm banging my head on the wall figruatively speaking. She thought he went from New Jersey to PA at least a 7 hour trip one way under load. Stayed at home, and then made that same trip back to New Jersey? She didn't dispatch or authorize him to go home? That would be grounds for my husband to get fired.
She done ticked me off also. She asked me why I was calling her. I told her that my husband asked me to call her after talking several times with her already. I tried to play cool and said if I could have done anything anyhow. She laughed, and I'm not sure how to take that. I was trying not to get her angry so she would purposly keep him out for another month.
I'm grating my nails here: she said next time have my husband call her. The reason I was offended was because I know the company doesn't have a policy of the wife not calling. I also called his old dispatcher (who quit for a better job. :cry
, and he made an extra effort to get him home. He understood why and called, and actually said if I need to call do so. My husband doesn't always relate very well the reasoning why he needs to get home.
This time he needs to look at a house, have my oldest daughter's birthday party, and change the oil and look at the brakes on the van. Not to mention I really miss him. Getting frustrated. I hate to think how he is feeling. I'm in for a very good session when and if he gets home. I didn't go into that aspect. She brushed off the reasons why he needed to get home.
Then she goes hmmmm, he is scheduled to be in Oklahoma (?) on Thursday. Yea, he is really going to get home for the weekend. I was hoping he could at least get home by the beginning of the week. I pleaded that she at least give him at the minimum of two days home.
He never had this problem before with the other dispatcher. Of course he was experienced and use to drive a truck previously. He would stay out two weeks and be home for the weekend almost on schedule.
The other major, major difference is that when he stayed out with his old dispatcher, he got bigger paychecks. Now his paychecks have been steadly decreasing. Instead of being from 700 to 900 hundred, they are now 500 to 600. I'm starting to wonder if we should try to get into a house eventhough we desperatly need to. The worse pay which was under her was a net of 2.04. Yep the dot is correct. Two dollars and four cents.
Because she messed up the runs, he got his runs in late. He had to take an advance to pay lumpers that wasen't shown until the next check. Yep, I was really able to buy food for 2.04. I think I would have been just able to buy a 20oz bottle of pop.
After I hung up with her, I talked with my husband. At first I asked him to call and ask her why she thought you got home last week. Then I said forget it, she will just give an excuse and brush it off. I told him to call his terminal manager, tell him your concerns, and ask for a new dispatcher. I told him not to even wait to see if she can turn things around.
His run is taking him right by the terminal where is manager is located, so he is going to stop and talk with him. He said his fear now is that if we do put in an offer to buy the house, that she won't be able to get him home when he needs to finalize everything and sign the papers.
I'm afraid she will have him out two more months before actually getting him home. Or she will constantly think he was just home last week. I may never see him then.
She may actually turn out to be very good later on, but I still think she needs alot of work and a lot more orgizational skills.
In the mean time, she will litterally drive him crazy. I seriously hope he gets a new dispatcher very soon. I told him to start to refuse the loads unless they bring him closer to home. I have a sneaky suspecion that she would take him towards California from there if she could. :evil: