Trucking: Dispatching, truck driving school, personnel payroll

Question
Hi, first, I want to thank you for volunteering your expertise and I hope my question is within the scope of what you can answer… or at least point me to someone or someplace where I can get the answer.

I am writing on behalf of my brother who is an OTR driver and he has changed jobs between a number of companies over the years because of different things like too few miles, dealing with bad (his opinion) dispatchers, incompetent (again, his opinion) back office people (personnel, payroll, etc), and various scheduling issues.

Anyway, I have advised him to consider getting out of the cockpit (don't know if that is the correct term – I'm an old Air Force guy) and get behind a desk as a dispatcher.  Since he “knows all about bad dispatching”, I figure maybe he can do it right.

Anyway, you have probably figured out that he is opinionated and sometimes difficult to deal with (even for those of us who love him).  My question is, where would he go to learn about being a dispatcher?  He attended a truck driving school years ago and that got him started. He loves the industry and I would like to see him have something more stable.  Are there schools that teach how to become a dispatcher?  Would you offer any other advice regarding a change from driving to something within the trucking industry?  Thanks for listening and sorry about rambling.


Answer
Don, this is not my normal area of expertise but I believe that many dispatchers are former drivers.  They can communicate with the drivers and understand their situation.  Of course there are far fewer dispatchers needed than drivers which means most companies will be selective and that's where interpersonal communication / people skills will make a difference.  Another related field your brother might consider is brokerage if he can sell and is a good communicator.  Adispatche will draw a salary whereas a broker can work on commission and make more money if they are good.  I don't know of any training schools for dispatchers but there probably are courses offered somewhere.  For more information on brokerage check out TIA at http://www.tianet.org/ They offer a new broker kit  and have a classified section.  Of course you can always search the job boards for dispatcher jobs, and ask around the companies he is driving for.
best of luck.
Jim