Still in my first year at Bison Transport, I am learning daily to appreciate the various personalities and accompanying skills that keep this company running efficiently. One highly-talented group of Bison employees can be found in Dispatch. The purpose of this article is to give a glimpse into what a day in Dispatch might involve. As I made plans to learn about a day in the life of a Bison Fleet Coordinator, it became clear that there were many who were capable of sharing a wealth of knowledge on the subject. I had the opportunity to speak with Sandy McIver and Marcel Laurendeau. Both have years of experience in assisting Bison Drivers with a multitude of tasks.

Marcel has been with Bison Transport for 3 years. Before this, he drove for another company for 11 years. Marcel is married to Heather and has 2 daughters, Nicole and Julie and son Matthew (in heaven). Sandy on the other hand has been at Bison for 7 years, the last 2 in dispatch. Sandy is married to Jack, a charter bus driver. She has a daughter Heather and a grandson, Dylan. Sandy says being married to Jack helps to give her a good understanding of what life can be like for the family of a truck driver. “It’s not always easy having him on the road so much. We do okay.”

When asked what a Fleet Coordinator does, Sandy laughed and said “I have the only job where I can tell people where to go and how to get there and they listen to me!” Both Marcel and Sandy agreed that their primary job is “absolutely the well-being of our Drivers.” Together they elaborated with a more technical answer. Dispatch assists with:

• Highway restrictions
• Load information
• POD information
• Permit information
• Customer specs
• Forecasting hours
• Pay listings
• Mileage status

There is more. Marcel noted, “We have the opportunity to share good times and bad times in a Driver’s life, each dispatcher has his/her own little family of Drivers.” Often times this means we act as ‘sounding boards’ for each other. Sometimes, Sandy and Marcel will encourage Drivers to sit with them and listen to some of the calls that come in. “Drivers are often very surprised at how hectic a day can get in Dispatch.” Sandy told us. “They usually don’t stay too long!” Marcel adds “Although I never drove a quality rig like our Bison Drivers get, I certainly remember the storms, the police, the 4 wheelers and the tourists. The job of driving a truck is not an easy one. If we can do our part to help make their lives better, that’s great.” Sandy continued, “Alot of the time I have to sympathize with some of the situations our drivers find themselves in. I give credit to them, I couldn’t do it.”

When asked for some of his fondest memories as a dispatcher, Marcel talked about being able to get Drivers home for a birthday or a special holiday. “We can’t get it done all the time, but it sure is great when we can help bring a family together for a special occasion. On the other hand, a bad memory would be having two of my Drivers in accidents on the same day in the U.S. Not all days are as great as you’d like.” Sandy talked of how good it felt to be able to keep a Driver close to home for the last 6 weeks of his wife’s very difficult pregnancy. “When the time finally came, I had to call him back from Fargo for the birth of his new child” she said. “There are so many rewarding aspects to this job. To be able to go home at night knowing that all of my drivers are ‘put to bed’ is great. We try very hard to treat each driver like #1. Sometimes things work out, other times, when we’ve had a tough call, its difficult to ‘turn the page’ but we are aware of the importance of going to the next call with a fresh perspective.” Both Marcel and Sandy spoke of how beneficial it is to ask the opinions of the Driver’s when it comes to things like safe stops, weather, roads and hours. Near the end of our conversation, Sandy and Marcel made mention of the people around them, the indispensible knowledge of people like Dave Howard and Cheryl Cuddy. They are a team in every sense. Thanks to Sandy and Marcel for the insight and for the education. Your attitudes towards your jobs are admirable.