Dispatch needs to have an idea behind their "strategy." What do they want to accomplish? Are their current actions going to work toward accomplishing those goals?
Instead, it seems as if dispatch is merely concerned with solving the problems of the day while ignoring underlying patterns of logistical inefficiency. That's a shame. By taking a step back from the day to day, a curious dispatch sup might quickly identify a number of areas where substantial improvement could be made to the overall plan.
Essentially all drivers experience situations each day that defy all things logistical. Without the information to know why such changes might have been made and furthermore without the autonomy to make any changes of their own, the driver becomes a demoralized individual who recognizes the ignorance of management yet has no ability to communicate to them what might be an intelligible and creative idea.
This has a negative impact on driver morale and even lends to a feeling of learned helplessness among them. The drivers don't understand errors in the dispatch so much as they are victimized by such errors. That's a strong word, but it illustrates how an arbitrary decision by a dispatch sup can drastically effect the day of a driver both logistically and even emotionally if the solution say, is responsible for a driver not making it home in time to see his children.
Drivers need to do a better job of communicating clearly to management what they identify as legitimate problems in their delivery solutions. Managers need to do a better job of facilitating these types of constructive criticisms and then listening and acting upon them. Finally, both drivers and managers need to find a way to work as colleagues rather than combatants in solving these issues.
