I read a lot of problems seems to be with the dispatcher. When I was OTR, working for my favorite company, I had a conversation with my dispatcher as to why the low mile. During this little talk, I'd learned that they were all paid by the hour. Not much of a incentive to keep their drivers moving.

So the question should dispatchers be taken off the hourly salary, and be paid a commission....like CPM?

What do you think?

Either way you go as far as dispatcher pay there are going to be problems.

Pay a dispatcher on a cpm basis and they are going to be even more pushy about drivers running illegal than before.

If you pay them a cpm basis then you should also hold them responsible and deduct pay for HOS violations that their drivers get, either in house or by a LEO.

It is really sad. I have had a couple of really good dispatchers over the years who worked with their drivers and listened to them, and while running in their fleets I would easily turn 2500-3000 miles per week with no pressure to cook the books.

The bad ones I have had were always wanting me to fudge my log book and could never deliver enough miles to make it worth running at all.

my FM is on a salary and couldn't care less. He gets a bonus for us being on time, but considering most of the guys run Las Vegas to Phx....thats not a problem and he knows it

Yes, cluggy...our dispatchers are payed by the hour. But they also get bonuses for things like average miles and performance on their board.

You guys make some good points. My dispatcher is paid a salary but has several bonuses tied to her fleet productivity. I have been leased to Dart for almost 2 years and am on my second FM (we call them fleet managers); the first was good and I did well, but the one I have now is an absolute Rock Star. She has made this an extremely good place for me to be and won Dart's award for FM of the year; believe me she deserved it. She has the ability to get me 3200 to 3300 miles a week and with the great relationships she has with our planners I get the loads that best work for me and my truck.

So, I think the key to a great dispatcher is the same for a great driver: a fair wage with the additional ability to generate bonuses that reward both for going outside the normal job responsibilites to do the best they can. In both cases, it helps to start with people who want to do more than fill a seat and realize that their efforts will be rewarded by sharing in the additional $$$ that working hard and smart will generate.

Randy

Oddly enough, I don't think it really matters that much how a dispatcher or fleet manager is paid....I think it has more to do with whether or not the person a. wants to do the job and enjoys doing it, or b. is just warming a chair and doing enough to keep the job and the paycheck.

Motivated people who are interested in their jobs and doing it well make all the difference in the world. This applies to any job on the planet.

Most dispatchers I come across look as though they were recruited out of a McDonalds. Truck Drivers have a reputation for being uneducated, I think dispatchers deserve that tag more than we do.

DDT



:moose:

i read in i think it was thetrucker they was talking about dispatchers in general also pay and pay industry wide was $9 to $14 per hr.not including any kind of incentive's or bonus's that a company may offer i read the article about 6 month's or so ago.

A lot of dispatchers are ex drivers, kind of blows a hole in your theory.

What was the reason then?