Appreciation post: the dispatcher in Oklahoma City who explained why my car arrived 2 days late
Last month I shipped my Honda from Tulsa to Phoenix and the driver kept saying my pickup window was "flexible" which drove me nuts. A dispatcher named Rhonda in Oklahoma City finally broke it down for me: carriers stack 8 to 10 cars per truck and they route by region, so a single last minute drop in Amarillo can push everyone back a full day. She showed me the actual load board on her screen and my car was listed as a fill load, meaning it only moved when a truck had room going my way. I'd been blaming the broker for weeks when the real issue was that I booked on a Tuesday for a Friday pickup during peak season. Does anyone here book their transport around specific freight lanes, or do you just grab whatever date the quote form spits out?
Laughed at the fill load part because that was basically me last spring, except I was the guy calling the broker every single day asking if my car had moved yet. Booked a Tuesday pickup in Denver heading to Seattle in June, peak season, and my car sat for four days before anyone even looked at it. I learned the hard way that cheap quote I grabbed was cheap for a reason, it just meant my car was the last one anybody wanted to deal with. Now I check the route first and pick my dates around when trucks are actually heading that way. Rhonda sounds like she saved you weeks of useless phone calls.