Being yet again on a plane, I only know the general issue.
Dispatch is not as black and white as one would hope. If it was life would be easy, forced dispatch, first in, first out. But we all know that it not the case.
I think dispatch tries to factor in a lot of things. While trying to do good for one, they often indirectly do not do good for another. They tend to deal with a lot of gray area. When freight is running strong most often these type of daily judgment calls are hardly noticed. When freight is slower they stand out more and thus are looked at much more.
Examples of what I am talking about: #2 unit is sitting in the yard watching TV at 2 am. #1 unit is based local and at home sleeping for the night. Decent run comes in picking up in an hour. Does dispatch wake #1 up or send #2? Sometimes they will send number 2 figuring when #1 wakes up in the am we will have more comparable loads or a better load. Another variable says what if the load is a shorter load and we know number 1 has ran a number of shorter loads in the last week and unit #2 has just been to TX and back?
These are not Dennis's exact scenarios but just generalities. Take Wombat and the hot dog incident for example; he was in service waiting for a load. Had to go to the hospital and oos, when he got back and went back in service should he be at the bottom of the board? Technically yes, but on a judgement call basis probably not. Now the unit that was number 1 at the time he returned may not agree with "the judgement call". I can see their point as well. Crazy part is they may get a better load 30 min later being number 2 versus being number 1. Again it is often challenging.
They are the kind of daily decisions these guys try and make all of the time. They often do very well as they generally have the best interest of the fleet at heart and to try and keep everyone moving. Sometimes it does not work. The best of intentions do not always yield the best results.
While far from perfect, I will defend them to the extent that I do truly believe that they do have a good intention 99% of the time or better.
