Dispatch Scheduling for Bulk Fleets: How to Build a Schedule That Holds

Scheduling, dispatching and routing

Three words get used for the same afternoon's work. Dispatch scheduling decides which driver works which shift and which loads fall in it. Routing decides the order of stops and the miles between them. Dispatching sends the result to drivers and manages the day. On a bulk fleet the three can't be done separately: the schedule depends on the route, and the route depends on which driver, with how many hours left, is starting where.

That is why good dispatch scheduling looks more like planning than calendar work. The output is a dispatch board for tomorrow: every driver, their loads in order, and a start and finish time that fits their clock.

Set the shape of the shift

Before any load is placed, decide how the schedule is split. Most bulk fleets plan by one or more of:

• Operating area or terminal. Drivers and loads that share a yard are planned together.
• Commodity and equipment. Fuel, crude, water, frac sand, aggregate, chemicals and dry bulk each need their own trailers and qualifications, so a mixed fleet often schedules them separately.
• Day crew and night crew. A 24-hour operation is two schedules that hand over. The night crew's end positions are the day crew's start positions.

Get the split right and every later step is smaller. Get it wrong and you are scheduling loads that no driver in the group can run.

Schedule around hours of service

Hours of service are the hardest constraint in a bulk schedule because they are different for every driver every day. Each driver has a 14-hour on-duty window, 11 hours of driving inside it, a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, and a 60- or 70-hour weekly cycle. A driver who started at 4am today and runs late can't start at 4am tomorrow.

1. Start from exact clocks, not shift templates.Pull remaining hours from the ELD rather than assuming a standard day.
2. Schedule the long loads to the drivers with the most clock.A four-hour round trip goes to the driver with ten hours left, not the one with six.
3. Watch the weekly cycle on Thursdays and Fridays.Drivers near the 70-hour limit can legally run a short day only; plan them on short turns.
4. Plan the 30-minute break where it costs nothing.A break during a long unload is free; a break forced on the highway is not.

Windows, congestion and buffers

A schedule fails at the gate. Appointment windows, rack and terminal hours, load and unload times and detention all sit on top of the hours-of-service limits. Three habits make a schedule hold:

• Plan congestion as time, not as average. A rack that backs up at 7am is a slower stop at 7am. Schedule it that way.
• Don't arrive early. A truck that shows up before the site will take it burns clock waiting.
• Hold a buffer on purpose. Fifteen to thirty minutes of slack in the right places stops one late gate from cascading through the shift.

Balance the drivers

Even out hours and loads across drivers doing the same work. Two drivers on the same day should finish within a reasonable spread of each other, and nobody should be run to the limit three days running. Balance is also how a schedule protects next week: a driver burned out on Tuesday is a driver you can't schedule on Friday. Plan home time as a rule, not a favour: a driver who has to be home tonight finishes inside that window.

What dispatch scheduling software should do

Most trucking dispatch software records the schedule once a dispatcher has built it. Few build it. Dispatch scheduling software worth the name should:

• read every driver's real hours of service, start location and home window;
• place loads against appointment windows, rack hours and load times, with buffers you set;
• match qualifications and equipment to each load before matching lanes;
• chain loads across the whole fleet to cut deadhead miles, not one truck at a time;
• let the dispatcher lock, swap and re-solve, and compare two versions of the schedule;
• hand the finished schedule back to the TMS or dispatch software the fleet already runs.

That is what Nivio Dispatch does. It is dispatch planning and scheduling software that works on top of your dispatch software or TMS: loads and drivers come in by spreadsheet, by hand or over the API, the Proprietary Algorithm builds the schedule around 50+ constraints, and the dispatcher reviews and releases it in under 30 minutes. For the full planning method, see How to Dispatch Trucks.

Questions

What is dispatch scheduling?

Dispatch scheduling is deciding which driver works which shift and which loads fall in it, in what order, so every load lands inside its window and every driver stays inside their hours of service. On a bulk fleet it is built together with routing, because the schedule depends on where each driver starts and how many hours they have left.

What is the difference between dispatch scheduling software and dispatch software?

Dispatch software sends assignments to drivers and tracks the day. Dispatch scheduling software builds the schedule those assignments come from. Nivio Dispatch is scheduling and planning software that works alongside your existing dispatch software or TMS.

How do you schedule drivers around hours of service?

Start from each driver's exact remaining hours from the ELD, give the longest loads to the drivers with the most clock, put drivers near the weekly limit on short turns, and plan the 30-minute break where it costs nothing, such as during a long unload.

How long should a buffer be in a dispatch schedule?

Most bulk fleets hold 15 to 30 minutes of slack at the points most likely to slip, such as busy racks in the morning and long unloads. The right buffer is the one that stops a single late gate from pushing every later load out of its window.