How does a moving company’s dispatcher keep the booking calendar from overlapping?

Start with how a booking is made. Who takes the call, and who confirms the date? If several people can promise a slot, overlaps are almost certain. Ask to see the calendar for a busy week and check whether trucks, crews and travel time between jobs are all visible in one place.

Then look at how jobs are sized. A dispatcher who asks about stairs, distance, access and the contents can estimate how long a job will run. One who guesses will double-book. Check how often jobs ran over and what was done when they did. Ask about the end-of-month rush, which is when problems tend to show.

Finally, ask about changes. How are cancellations, late additions and weather delays handled? Is there a spare crew or a standby list? Ask a dispatcher to talk you through a hard day. If the system lives in one person’s head, plan how to write it down and train a backup. Look at complaints for missed windows too, since those show where the calendar failed. Ask too how the system copes if the dispatcher is away. A backup who can read the calendar and take calls without re-creating it from scratch is part of what you are buying, even if it never appears in the accounts.

Key takeaways

• Check that one shared calendar shows crews, trucks and travel time.
• Ask how job length is estimated and how often jobs run over.
• Find out how cancellations and late changes are handled.