Central Dispatch Role

OUR MISSION:

To provide our customers with quality and responsible transportation along with efficient and expedited service with courtesy and thoughtfulness being our primary importance. We also strive to exceed the expectations of our customers, employees and our community with each shipment.

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPALS:

• Conduct business following the highest ethical standards.
• Provide our customers with total satisfaction.
• To our employees we pledge to foster an environment of fairness, teamwork, understanding, respect and a continued share in our success.
• Provide support and contribute to our country and the communities we serve.
• Profitability is essential to our continuing success.
• Provide continuing study and effort behind our safety program to always ensure that all of our employees return home safely each day to their families.

EXPECTED DUTIES:

• Answer and respond back to all dispatch requests with courtesy, respect and convey an attitude of appreciation to all our customers when you receive orders via telephone, fax or email. Respond to our customers’ requests in a timely manner and do not leave them hanging or guessing.
• Communication with our customers is extremely important. Update them if we are late or early. Schedule loading and unloading times as needed. Follow the progress of our drivers throughout the day to head off surprises or potential problems. We should always be calling our customers to update and advise rather than them calling us and then we sound stupid.
• Attention to detail in all aspects of your job is expected. It is extremely important to make sure to pay close attention to all details for each load to be assigned. This can mean the difference between life and death circumstances, potential claims or service failures with our customers. Double check to ensure that all of the dispatch instructions we give to our drivers are correct like for example the correct truck number, account numbers right product, correct tanks etc.
• Communion Skills: You will be listening and speaking to people on the phone, often in some various states of distress. Your ability to listen, speak plainly and communicate effectively will be necessary. You need to be calm, clear and in control especially in emergency situations.
• Ability to multitask: Dispatchers often move a lot of people around at the same time, tracking their movements and keeping tabs on what they need. Coordinating drivers and available equipment is essential. Get ahead of the game whenever possible, especially in slow times. We could call customers for work if needed. Days can tend to be very busy, and the workload can end up being constant. You will need to have the ability to work in high pressure situations and fast paced environment at any given time.
• Problem solving: You will need to be able to prioritize the most important situations that may arise which you will have to be able to think quickly on your feet. If possible, if you can solve the or correct the problem yourself that would be most helpful but in certain situations that will require additional team members’ assistance gather what information you can about the incident to share and pass along to other L & E team members.
• Scheduling work: Book as much truck time as possible to ensure maximum utilization. All the while dispatch in a manner that makes the most sense and profit. Create realistic dispatch shifts. You will need to make adjusts when weather issues come into play along with the different skill and abilities of your crew. Some drivers are more efficient than others and you must take this into consideration. Before you tell customers no explore all of your options and resources including talking with other terminals. Telling a customer no should be your last option.
• Equipping Drivers: It is part of your responsibility to properly equip your crew with all the necessary information to the job safely, correctly and incident free. Provide the appropriate L & E invoice number for the upper right side of the driver's trip report, correct address, phone numbers tank sizes, any/all account numbers, maps of delivery locations and all other pertinent information that the driver may need. Whenever possible do not send important or unusual dispatch instructions via text message. Write up the necessary information on the L & E dispatch form along with calling the driver and/or fax the information. Just sending an email string can be confusing and important information can get lost. In the shuffle. To your best ability contact your drivers daily at their appropriate scheduled dispatch times.
• Always leave the dispatch area in such a manner that anyone could come in and within minutes acclimate themselves as to what is going on. Like making sure all dispatch sheets are current, any/all orders and changes are to be entered into the keystone dispatch. Update available manpower sheets. Leave things for your co-worker in an organized manor. Fax all documents to customers as needed. If need be coordinated & schedule equipment maintenance as needed.
• Work schedule & office hours: To be discussed.
• After hours’ calls: You will be required to field phone calls from customers and drivers after regular business hours. Some nights there may be little or no calls and some nights you may receive many calls. Unfortunately, this is part of the job requirement.
• Perform any/all miscellaneous office and cleaning duties on a daily, weekly or monthly basis as needed and to be discussed.
• Teamwork is essential. Foster an environment of mutual respect with your co-workers and drivers. Put yourself in your shoes. Get to know them. Work together as a dispatch team. You all need to work for the greater good of the company, not just your area of responsibility. Help each other out, horse trade loads that make sense between Western & Eastern WA dispatch.