DISPATCHER / FLEET DISPONENT / FORWARDING AGENT / LOGISTICS SPECIALIST / TRANSPORT MANAGER / TRAFFIC PLANNER
It doesn’t matter which of the terms we use, they all aim for the same job – coordinating tasks in international or domestic traffic. Their job is correspondence between the and field workers in our case – truck drivers. When coordination is good, we can expect better results on the roads and conversely, when coordination is poor and results will be weaker. The task they have is not easy. They must harmonize the wishes and requirements of the company directors and best present them to the field worker, that is, to the truck driver. In this mediator role, there is often a conflict between the driver and the dispatcher. I will talk about the role of the owner of the company in the next blog and this time I would dwell on this relationship, the driver – dispatcher.
DO NOT TALK TO
THE DRIVER WHILE DRIVING
Somehow, as a rule, in most companies, dispatchers take a more important place in the hierarchy of the company and their word is more important to the owner than the word of the driver, but only the driver has responsibility for loading unloading, driving, loading schedules, documentation, and regulations prescribed by code 95. Sometimes, the dispatcher shares this responsibility with the driver in front of the owner of the company, but that responsibility is only verbal in nature and has no weight on the obligation. On the other hand, the driver has a material or even criminal liability depending on the damage that has occurred.
Now, this is about rights and obligations. In my personal experience, I have come to the conclusion that there are no qualified dispatchers in many companies. In fact, what qualifications would it take to have a dispatcher in an international logistics company? Can a taxi dispatcher get a job at an international freight forwarding company tomorrow? Is it enough, just knowledge of a foreign language for this job? Another thousand and one questions arise here. Even in the guidelines / and the Law / on the official EU site, it only talks about the rights and responsibilities of drivers and company owners, nowhere does anyone say anything about dispatchers. They play an important role in the logistics process and should have responsibilities. Not only moral or verbal responsibility to the business owner, but a clearly defined obligation, framed by the Law on public transport. Why would only the driver have to have a certificate of passed code95? Isn’t it logical that anyone working in the position of dispatcher has that certificate that should be in the extended version when it comes to about them? The dispatcher’s poor performance is not affected only to poor business results but to overall traffic safety. Poor communication and frequent verbal duels bring the driver into a state of agitation and confusion and then drivers make frequent traffic violations.
There are very common situations where the dispatcher does not know how to place a pin on Google Maps /GPS/ at the gate of the company that the driver needs to get into, what the end result is, for the driver to go in a completely different direction, and he was eventually forced to enter an area where traffic for trucks was banned.
The situation with dispatchers in big companies is somewhat better but not much and not always but the situation with subcontractors, as a rule of thumb, is scary.
This text is not intended to be a critique of dispatchers but an analysis derived from the experience of my and many other drivers and aims to point out legislative gaps.
In conclusion, perhaps the legislature should pass a law setting out precise rules as to who, how, with what school expertise and with what skills this job can be done and the code95 should be compulsory for both, drivers and dispatchers.