Company Glue

My step dad is a truck driver, an independent owner-operator to be more precise.  He contracts primarily to one company because they have a good dispatcher that keeps the work flowing and doesn't try and sell him any bullshit.  He appreciates this a great deal since having a good dispatcher makes his life a lot easier.  When his life is easier he gets more trips and the company gets more money and everyone is happy.

Now, driving truck isn't a hard thing, just ask my step dad about it sometime, and yet most people still do it poorly.  So while there may be a lot of truck drivers out there, especially in these tough times, it is still hard to find the people that will do the job right so the company can make money.

Things weren't always happy at the company he contracted to though.  He figured that his favorite dispatcher was going to leave.  Now he knew this was going to make his life harder and decided that if she left, that he would leave too.  He mentioned to a few other people that his favorite dispatcher was going to leave and they became worried about the situation as well.  You see, while you can replace the position of dispatcher, you can't replace what the person had become to the company.  She had become the glue that held people there since she made other people's lives easier.  The company didn't understand that value of that one dispatcher until people started to call the boss and ask why the dispatcher and their best truck driver were leaving.

They were quite shocked to hear this and asked my step dad why he was leaving.  He explained that her last day was his last day too.  They asked what they could do to change his mind.  He told them that they had to keep her happy enough to stay.

Suddenly they saw the value of the dispatcher.  Luckily they saw it before it was too late.

© Copyright 2002 Patrick Berry. Last update: 3/24/02; 9:26:25 AM.