Director, Dispatch Operations
Position Summary
The Director of Dispatch Operations, reporting to the VP, Operations for the region, provides strategic leadership and operational oversight for all dispatch pods across a service center. This role ensures efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction through data-driven decision-making, structured accountability, and talent development. The position is critical for aligning dispatch operations with company goals, improving direct cost control, and creating a leadership pipeline.
Key Responsibilities
- Operational Leadership
- Overseeing and regulating the day-to-day operations in their dispatch pods across service centers.
- Developing and preparing operation plans, programs, budgets and forecasts.
- Drive P&L performance through dispatch excellence. Proactively plan and allocate loads to maximize revenue miles and asset utilization; optimize lane mix to reduce empty miles; coordinate schedules to control costs; monitor key KPIs (utilization, loaded versus empty miles, on-time delivery, margin per load) and take corrective action to protect service and profitability.
- Proactive leadership to increase profitable operations from the onset of a load.
- Drive order completion accuracy, utilization, and on-time performance.
- Collaborate with Directors at other service centers to standardize dispatch practices, KPIs, and accountability across pods. Responsible for multiple product lines with unique dispatch challenges.
- Establishing and maintaining the necessary operational systems and procedures and maintain limitations and controls.
- Act as primary escalation point above pod level to reduce noise for senior leaders.
- Lead-to-Cash Accountability
- Collaborate with the Lead-to-Cash team to ensure seamless transition of data.
- Ensure dispatchers take ownership of upstream order creation and completion.
- Improve accuracy and timeliness of order entry to reduce billing delays.
- Align dispatch processes with financial outcomes to support revenue integrity.
- Data & Profitability Focus
- Monitor and analyze KPIs tied to profitability (Empty Miles %, $/Truck per Day, Trailer Utilization %).
- Identify cost drivers and implement corrective actions to improve margins.
- Use analytics to guide decisions on resource allocation and operational efficiency.
- Customer Service Excellence
- Ensure proactive communication and timely updates to customers.
- Improve CSI scores by focusing on load accuracy, timeliness, and service reliability.
- Reduce service failures and escalations through real-time accountability.
- Champion technology-driven improvements to streamline dispatch workflows and reduce manual effort.
- Ensure full utilization of TMW and integrated platforms to enforce process compliance and improve efficiency.
- Promote continuous innovation by identifying and piloting emerging technologies that enhance operational performance and customer experience.
- Talent Development
- Coach and develop Dispatch Managers and Dispatchers.
- Implement cross-training programs to build flexibility and resilience.
- Facilitate cross-department exposure (Sales, HR, Finance, Safety).
- Build a leadership pipeline with real-time decision-making experience.
- Overtime Management
- Support dispatch teams in managing overtime effectively.
- Identify workload imbalances and implement scheduling strategies to reduce OT costs.
- Cross-Functional Alignment
- Partner with Terminal Managers, Sales, HR, Finance, and Safety to align operations.
- Ensure dispatch delivers on financial results, efficiency, and customer reliability.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Order Completion Accuracy %
- On-Time Performance %
- Empty Miles %
- $/Truck per Day
- Trailer Utilization %
- Load Acceptance %
- CSI Score (Customer Satisfaction Index)
- Cross-Pod Consistency
- Overtime Hours vs. Budget
