DISPATCHER'S BLOG

Is It Hard to Start in Truck Dispatching?

Today, let’s ask ourselves, “how hard is it to start a truck dispatching service?”

Before enrolling into our Truck Dispatcher Training Course, people frequently ask how hard or easy it is to start a truck dispatching service. When answering this question, we need to consider a few different angles.

The first angle is knowledge.

Is it hard to learn how to dispatch trucks?

In my opinion, it is not hard to learn. The reason is that you will be conducting a limited number of tasks as an independent truck dispatcher. Those tasks are very repetitive and can be preformed by a person with a limited skill set. For example, you will call to get more information about available loads. Every time you make one of those calls, you will ask mostly the same questions.

Once you do a few phone calls, you're going to get used to it and realize there is not much to it. Then when you're negotiating the rates for your clients (trucking companies), you're going to try to get the highest possible rate, and those conversations will all be very similar. You're going to do your best to get the highest rate, and a broker will do their best to offer you the lowest rate. Eventually, you meet at an acceptable price point for both of you.

Then comes the paperwork. You will be completing the same types of documents over and over again. So once you’ve done that a few times, you will see it's fairly easy. You will be filling in the same blanks and signing on the same dotted line. But you will realize that it's all the same and doesn’t require any new knowledge or effort to complete those documents.

And last but not least is dispatching your client. This shouldn't be too difficult. You just have to communicate with your client and provide them with the vital information related to pickup and delivery of the load.

So as you can see, all these tasks are fairly simple. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to complete them, and it shouldn't be a problem for you to learn those skills. To learn them, you can take our trucking dispatch course.

What you cannot learn or be taught is experience. For example, when it comes to problem resolution, you can’t resolve problems efficiently until you face them and experience different outcomes in different situations.

But that is where it might be an advantage for you to be our student. You can email us and tell us about the situation you're facing, and our team of real truck dispatcher will advise you on possible decisions you could make. This way, you may be able to assist your client with problem resolution before you gain your own experience.

The second factor is money.

Now that we’ve covered knowledge, let's talk about the second most important factor when starting a business: money. How much money do you need to get started in truck dispatching?

Let's consider what you may need to start truck dispatching. You'll probably require some sort of computer—and you probably already have one. Second, you will need a phone, which you also probably have. Then you will need some software to make your operations more efficient. In most cases, you can access these programs for free or pay fairly low fees to access premium versions of the same product.

A few years ago, I may have also suggested getting a printer and scanner, but today it's really not necessary. You can complete most of the documents on your computer. You may also want to budget for your access to the load boards, but in most cases, you can get those for under $100 a month.

As you can see, you probably already have most of the equipment needed for operations, and you will not need too much money to get going with some software and the load boards. You may also need a few hundred dollars to register a company. But as we have discussed in our other post, it is not required. You can start the operation as a sole proprietor.

It takes more than just learning the skills.

To summarize, we have determined that you can learn the skills to dispatch trucks; they're not all that hard to learn. So, it should be fairly easy for you to access this information and learn how the operations work. We have also determined that you will not need to invest significant money into your equipment and software.

However, I have to point out one crucial factor—your ability to dispatch trucks does not make you a good entrepreneur. However, if you want to try working on your own and becoming a business owner, I think truck dispatching might be the best way to start.

You don't need to spend a lot of time on getting the skills because they're fairly basic. Nor do you need to spend much money on the equipment because you probably already have most of what’s needed.

And unlike with most other business opportunities, even if you fail, your losses will be very limited. And that is the beauty of the truck dispatching business. You have minimal downsides, and if you become good at it, there is much potential.

To conclude, I think that starting a truck dispatching business is no harder than starting any other business. In my opinion, it's probably even easier. So if you are interested in this industry, I think you should give it a shot.

Are you thinking about becoming an independent truck dispatcher? LearnDispatch offers online truck dispatcher training courses which are suitable for people not familiar with transportation industry. Learn more about our training by visiting Training Details page or choose your course by clicking here.

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