The relationship between drivers, operations, and shippers
I hear from drivers frequently who say that ‘Planner’s don’t like me’ or ‘the planner doesn’t care about the driver they only care about the customer’. For years and years I have said we have two customers here at TFY, we have the internal customer, our drivers, and the external customer, the shipper that pays us to haul their freight. The fleet manager takes care of the internal customer and the planner takes care of the external customer. We obviously have to work together to make both happy or none of what we do will work. That is also why I say that the driver does not need to talk to the planner directly every day because the planner can’t effectively service their ‘customer’ in that case. That does not mean the planner has anything against the driver or the planner does not want the driver to succeed. On the contrary the planner is working with the customer on behalf of the driver. Sometimes the planner managing that long term relationship doesn’t match what the driver wants to hear or wants to do short term. This model has proven effective in the long term and I still believe in the way we do it here.
Have a Great week & Stay Safe out there!
Cody J. 05/14/2021
