To perform this job role, do you know how to navigate a load board? An additional attribute is good customer service as a requirement for this job. If yes, then let’s get you prepared for this job interview. In this article, we will be sharing some of the questions with answers that you might be asked in your interview as a Truck Dispatcher.
1. Why Are You Interested In This Role?
With my skill of effective communication and organizational skills, I find this job rewarding and exciting every day. Even though it’s a stressful job because you deal with a different problem every day but I like challenging roles. I believe that delivery transportation continues to be a vital part of our economy; ensuring businesses and customers have a broader reach to sell and purchase goods and products. I believe that I can be a great asset to your company in this role. It has a lot to offer me in terms of challenges and learnings. I am sure that I will be able to help the truck drivers concentrate on their routes while I manage everything for the customer for their delivery. I am also fluent in English and I am planning to learn another language this month that can be an advantage for this role to stay in touch with customers and trucks for seamless communication on work matters. I am sure that my skillset would minimize the deadhead and increase the profitability of your company.
2. What Are The Roles Of A Truck Dispatcher?
- Keep and maintenance of the record, checking drivers’ daily logs for monitoring their working hours and equipment availability
- Keeping a check on the weather on the location where drivers are headed and inform them timely for any hazards.
- Ensuring the physical health of the driver and safety so that customers’ requirements can be met too.
- Coordination and management of efficient routes where cost can be controlled and timelines can be managed.
3. What Are The Qualities That A Truck Dispatcher Needs To Be Successful?
I believe that one must have good communication skills because it is the essence. The role involves duties like dispatching where good communication skills will come in handy. The role also requires an applicant to be a good listener, must possess a good intonation and calmness in the voice which transmits a soothing feeling to the clients.
4. What Major Challenges Did You Face During Your Last Role? How Did You Manage Them?
In my previous role, the truck drivers went on strike due to some organizational conflict regarding their pay. We had a line of deliveries and pickup and truck drivers were adamant on their matter. It was a stressful time because we were constantly getting calls from the customers about the delay. After talking to my supervisor on this matter, we were able to stop their protest. All is well that ends well!
5. Describe Your Daily Routine As A Truck Dispatcher?
My day starts with the record maintenance of work performed along with charges and expenses that have been done. Once I have done record keeping, I coordinate the next set of schedules with the drivers based on work orders received. While doing this, I am also staying in touch with the customers regarding their questions and requests for services. If there is any repair work required on a vehicle, I also arrange the required service to make sure that vehicle is back on the road as soon as possible and work is not delayed.
6. Describe Briefly About Your Experience?
I started my first job in 2015 in a small size corporation. My primary responsibilities include dispatching a truck to the proper location in a timely fashion to meet consumer specifications. I made sure trucks are properly loaded and met the regulation of load requirements. I also learned to use a fax machine and copy machine for filing purposes for organizing all data entries for the tasks. I was also in charge of coordinating the movements of means of transport like trucks that are entering terminals. To stay connected with drivers, I carried out communication through computers, phones, or two-way radios. I was also in charge of managing the drivers to make sure they are leaving and arriving as per their schedule.
7. What Kind Of Strategies And Mindset Are Required For This Role?
To excel in this role, it is important that one is efficient in computer skills to access GPS monitoring. You also need to have good analytical skills to assess the situation for a smoother operation of the business. In my role, I believe that it is important to stay updated about new roads or routes or highways or even discuss challenges in your peer group. Such knowledge helps you a lot in achieving good results in your career. I have joined a few social media groups related to my career where I am constantly in touch with people from the same career background who give out tips.
8. What Is The Biggest Challenge You Foresee In This Job?
The biggest challenge is the organization of tasks that will come my way. The job is a stressful one and needs a lot of patience to achieve my goals. The current ongoing pandemic where we can face a shortage of drivers thus leading to delayed deliveries and pickups. Even though the government has made vaccines and booster shots mandatory for any private business, still people are reluctant to get vaccinated due to existing medical conditions and religious beliefs. To ensure smoother operation in this job is going to be a great challenging task!
9. How Do You Stay Motivated At Work?
While working in this field, I make sure that I set up goals for myself that help me know why I am in this career every time I feel demotivated. It gives me clarity on what I am trying to achieve in this career and gives me a stimulus to keep rolling. I am always keen to learn new things so I have subscribed to a few related magazines and online subscription that helps me to do my job better. I make sure that I spend my free time staying motivated by doing fun activities like sports. It keeps me positive about my role and what I want to achieve in the next 5 years in this capacity. Even if I have a bad workday, I make sure that I reward myself on good days to stay motivated.
10. Describe A Time You Failed In This Role And The Lesson You Learned?
At the start of my career in this field, I once overbooked one of the truck drivers that exceeded the working hours as per regulations. The driver complained about it to my supervisor and it put me in a really bad place in front of him. It was a calculation mistake on my end and I did not know till he pointed it out in front of my supervisor. I immediately apologized to my supervisor for my wrong calculation and to the driver too for putting him in this condition where his safety could be jeopardized. I learned that while assigning tasks I should always double-check the calculation of road hours so that I do not miss anything important. I also make sure I keep a regular check on the physical health of all truck drivers under me.
11. Why Do You Feel You Are Qualified For This Role?
I am a graduate in transportation and have professional experience in the same field too. As you can see in my resume, I can schedule drivers and plan their routes according to customers’ locations. I have experience in working on transportation management software like Rose Rocket. I also have computer skills in Microsoft Office that including Excel and Word primarily. I also know transportation regulations and laws as per the state’s requirements.
12. Share With Us Your Greatest Achievement
In my last role, I ensured maximum productivity by achieving Company-established goals by successfully routing vehicles for three months consecutively. Insured productive use of all assets, equipment, and drivers. I have also won the title of best employee twice in the last 6 months as I was able to reach my goals on time and with efficiency too.
13. What Is The Difference Between Truck Dispatcher And Freight Broker?
Logically, both are very different roles. A freight broker is a legal middleman that works between a shipper/manufacturer and the carrier. A shipper needs their freight to move while the carrier can move. A truck dispatcher is directly linked with a carrier and works on their behalf.
14. Are You Familiar With Dispatch Trucker Software? What Are The Advantages?
The software has automated schedulers with routing programs that allow them to optimize their schedules and the routes that intend to travel. The dispatch trucker programs allow truckers to automatically process their resource allocations as well as balance their workloads. The schedules can be created and changed if there are any emergencies or requirement changes.
15. How To Plan Time-Efficient Routes In This Role?
This is only possible with the help of a transport strategy. With a route planning system, one uses the resources efficiently and reduces the maintenance of the vehicle. For this, one must use AI to forecast demand and supply more accurately. As per the rate of fuel.
- Have updated client information that includes name, address, and phone number
- Know the shipment’s specifications that including reception hours and procedures before the delivery. These are mainly the instructions by the client who has to receive the shipment.
- The balance between urgent shipments and those that should have shipped earlier.
- With the client’s data, map the location to set the route of the journey and group them by proximity.
- Optimization of loading and unloading process to be considered while movement.
- Always consider external factors like weather, traffic or road condition, and margin of human error.
16. Are You Aware Of Dot Regulations Regarding Driving Hours?
DOT rules are strict as to the number of hours that you can drive. For example, a driver is only allowed to drive for 11 hours out of a day and work for 14 hours. After this period, there is a mandatory rest period of ten hours that a driver must take regardless. Some requirements dictate how the driver keeps a logbook. This is essential to remember as many times a driver will get into a lot of trouble if their logbook is not kept properly; this is just one aspect that covers Federal DOT regulations on a Motor Vehicle.
17. What Is The Role Of Technology In Freight Dispatching?
Several dispatch companies have embraced the wireless tracking system and technology-driven communication platform that helps maintain constant communication with their drivers who sometimes need to respond quickly to traffic jams calls, last-minute changes, and changes in orders. With this, it is possible to track everything related to the route like fuel, usage, and even hours on the road where the engine was running. This also creates a window for clients to communicate and monitor the progress of their good and time-to-time detail of its movement. The use of technology also bridges the gap between the service provider and clients by providing quick access to information across parties.
18. What Are Ftl And Ltl?
Weight and dimension are the two factors that determine the load that is later translated into full truckload (FTL), a less than truckload (LTL), or a volume/partial truckload (VPTL or PTL). A shipment totaling only a few pallets or a few crates, generally not using more than eleven feet of trailer space, depending on carrier, means that your shipment qualifies as less than truckload.
19. What Is Meant By Inside Pickup Or Delivery And Limited Access?
For Inside pickup or delivery, the truck driver is asked to enter inside a building for pickup or delivery
For Limited Access, the entry is limited to a specific place, mostly a gated entry.
20. What Is A Reefer? How Is It Used?
When the commodity needs to stay chilled or even frozen, this may require a refrigerated truck called reefer.
As per regulations and requirements to assure transport, the temperature should be set for the optimum conditions. Most reefers consist of fruits and vegetables so each type has specific setting and loading requirements. Settings would typically be set either for fresh cargo needing to be chilled, or frozen. The ventilation level should be set too. Airflow is always from the bottom of the reefer to the top. Ventilation for chilled produce must flow around and through packaging.
21. What Is Hazmat Charge?
There is a different set of rules when the shipment is about hazardous materials (HAZMAT). Any item that is flammable receives a small HAZMAT charge, and documentation will be needed to determine. Any active batteries will also need to be disconnected before pick up. A few common HAZMAT items are paint and fertilizer.
22. What Is The Importance Of The Bill Of Lading?
In order to get freight on a truck, a bill of lading document is required. It is the basic requirement especially if you are doing cross-border shipping. At the time of pickup, you will need this document printed out to hand to the driver. The document mentions all information related to class, item number, details, and dimensions along with the addresses. When loading, this document is kept in hand.
23. Under Which Circumstances, Does The Client Has To Pay Detention Charges?
Detention charges are assessed by carriers when the driver is forced to wait more than about 90 minutes to make the pickup or drop-off. When detention charges are imposed, this often reflects poor planning beforehand.
24. Why Are Pallets Common In Shipping?
Palletization is common in all sorts of freight shipping. Using a portable platform, pallets are used for packaging items for shipping.
- Pallets protect your shipment during transit, loading, and unloading
- Pallets make loading and unloading faster and easier for the carrier
- Pallets allow carriers to maximize space inside the trailer
25. What Are The Types Of Truckload?
- Flatbed: These trailers are used to satisfy loading requirements such as loading from the side or top. Mostly they are used for heavy shipments
- Dry van: If the shipment does not have any temperature requirement then it’s used for shipment purposes.
- Refrigerated: With the requirements of a specific temperature setting, these are used for shipment. The most common shipment items are medicine, food, and personal care products including makeup.
Conclusion
Be confident and smile as you give your interview. Also, dress in good attire for your interview. Make sure you have a hard copy of your resume in hand that mentions all your previous and updated responsibilities and educational records. An un-updated resume is simply a negative point because it shows your lack of professionalism. These 25 questions are surely going to help in acing the first round of interviews as a Truck Dispatcher. Good luck!
