Truck Dispatch Services for Established Fleets

Truck dispatch outsourcing means hiring an external team to handle the dispatch function for your fleet: driver check-ins, exception handling (breakdowns, delays, refused deliveries), route monitoring, ETA updates, BOL and POD processing, and billing support. The outsourced team operates as a dedicated extension of your operations, covering shifts your in-house team can’t or doesn’t want to staff.

This is different from freight brokerage, which involves sourcing loads and negotiating rates. Dispatch outsourcing at DMI is fleet coordination support for carriers that already have their own loads and established shipper relationships.

Your dedicated dispatchers work from our facilities in Naga City, Philippines and log into your TMS using the access you provide. They follow your exception playbook, communicate through your preferred channels, and handle day-to-day driver coordination exactly as an in-house dispatcher would.

The difference is that you’re not managing their employment, benefits, or overnight-shift staffing challenges. We handle that. You define the scope; we deliver consistent shift coverage.

Established fleets are our focus. We don’t offer load matching, freight brokerage, or load board access. Our truck dispatch service is built for carriers that already have shipper relationships and existing loads: regional carriers, 3PLs managing their own driver networks, and last-mile operators.

If you’re an owner-operator looking for someone to find loads, this isn’t the right service for you, and we’ll tell you that directly on the call.

This is a managed service. You’re not hiring dispatchers as employees and then managing them yourself. You’re engaging DMI as your dispatch operations provider. We handle recruitment, onboarding, daily management, quality assurance, and performance reviews. You get a Team Lead and Project Manager included in your monthly rate at no extra cost.

You define the scope and the standards; we manage the execution. The closest analogy is building an outsourced dispatch department, not hiring a freelance dispatcher.

The industry benchmark is one dispatcher per 10-15 active trucks per shift. For a 30-truck fleet running 24/7, that means 6-9 dispatchers across three shifts including redundancy for days off and call-ins. Our minimum engagement is 3 dispatchers, which generally maps to a fleet of around 30 trucks on a three-shift model, or a larger single-shift fleet where specialized dispatch support is needed.

We train dispatchers on your specific TMS before they go live. Platforms we regularly train on include McLeod Transportation Management System, Samsara, Motive (formerly KeepTruckin), Trimble, Truckin Digital, and custom platforms. If you use a proprietary or less common system, we’ll discuss the training requirements during the discovery call.

We don’t claim existing deep expertise on every platform; we claim the ability to train effectively on the platform you use.

DMI charges a fixed monthly rate per dispatcher, not a percentage of load revenue. Mid Level dispatchers (1-3 years experience) are $1,428/month ($8.50/hr at 168 hours/month). Expert Level dispatchers (3-6 years) are $1,764/month ($10.50/hr). Each rate includes a Team Lead, Project Manager, first 5 training days, and no setup or recruitment fees.

Most carriers compare this to the alternative: a US-based dispatcher typically costs $3,300-$4,600/month in salary alone. The savings over domestic dispatch staffing are typically 65-70%.

24/7, including weekends and holidays. Our Naga City, Philippines facility operates around the clock, and our time-zone position allows us to cover US overnight and early morning windows (including the Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones) without requiring Philippine-based staff to work unsociable hours locally.

Overnight coverage is one of the primary reasons North American carriers come to us.

Yes. If the TMS is cloud-based (which most modern systems are), the dispatcher’s physical location doesn’t affect what they can do operationally. They log in through VPN if required, follow your exception playbook, communicate via your preferred channel (phone, Slack, Teams, email, TMS messaging), and handle everything an in-house dispatcher would handle.

Carriers that have concerns about this typically resolve them within the first few weeks of live operation when they see the output.

Your dispatcher follows the exception playbook you provide (or that we help you build during onboarding). For a typical breakdown, the dispatcher confirms the driver’s location and load, contacts your preferred roadside assistance vendor, notifies the receiver of the ETA impact, logs the event in your TMS with timestamps, and alerts your operations manager through your designated channel. The entire sequence takes 10-15 minutes when the playbook is clear.

Weather events follow the same protocol: identify affected loads, reroute where possible, notify receivers, document the event. No exceptions fall through shifts because all three shifts use the same documented protocol.

For standard TMS platforms, most mid-level dispatchers reach operational proficiency within 5-7 working days. The first 5 days of training are included at no cost. For custom or proprietary platforms with non-standard workflows, we’ll agree on an extended ramp period before the engagement starts. We don’t put dispatchers on live shifts until they’re ready; your Team Lead signs off on go-live readiness.

PIPEDA permits cross-border transfer of personal information when the receiving organization provides contractually equivalent protections to those the originating Canadian organization would apply itself. We meet this requirement through our NDA agreements and the data processing clauses in your service agreement.

For Canadian carriers, we recommend a brief review of the data processing language during the proposal stage so both parties are aligned before the engagement starts. Dispatchers handling Canadian fleet operations are bound to the same data handling standards as those serving US carriers.

We train dispatchers on the regulatory frameworks relevant to your fleet, including FMCSA Hours of Service rules for US operations and applicable transport regulations for Canadian operations. Dispatchers don’t need to be regulatory specialists, but they do need to know when a driver is approaching HOS limits and what the escalation path is when that happens. We build this into the exception playbook during onboarding.

You interviewed and approved the dispatcher before they started. If issues emerge during the engagement, we address them first through coaching and performance management. If the problem persists and replacement is necessary, we handle the full recruitment cycle at no additional cost to you.

Our 94% retention rate reflects the fact that this situation is uncommon, but when it happens, you’re not left managing it alone.

3 dispatchers. Below that threshold, the management model (Team Lead oversight, Project Manager, quality reporting, shift redundancy) doesn’t function properly. If you’re evaluating a smaller engagement, a discovery call will help you understand whether the economics and operational math work for your specific fleet and shift structure.