Get Rid of Dispatch Without Layoffs
This podcast-style YouTube conversation critiques the traditional single-person dispatcher role in automotive service departments as an expensive constraint that reduces throughput and morale. Hosts note typical dispatcher pay (~$40–50k, occasionally higher), share negative anecdotes, and propose three alternatives: a simple physical RO rack (~$25), electronic/digital dispatch (requires setup), and lateral support (low-cost, preferred). They also recommend repurposing dispatchers as internal advisors to increase shop hours and sales.
Chapters
Okay, let's talk about dispatch.
Still. Yeah, seriously, you still have dispatch is what I'm calling this. Yeah, seriously, it's like somebody who has a ELR of $60.
Right.
From, from. What were you, like, from Ford?
Like, if Gerald Ford was president when that ELR was in vogue, you might need to do some adjustments.
Yeah, yeah. Same thing with dispatch. Like, why would you. First of all, let's talk about why dispatch doesn't work. Cause once you're past like 10 technicians, it's humanly impossible for one person to keep everybody going. Second of all, I never hear of a dispatcher working six days a week. So if you're open on Saturdays, gotta.
Turn it out anyway. Right.
When, like, everybody always talks about that one amazing dispatcher, like completely forgetting that the terrible dispatcher they have is in the room.
Yep. There are six dispatchers in the hall of fame.
You experience that all the time where you're like, oh, you know the dispatchers there, you're talking about dispatching. I'm like, dispatch doesn't work. Like, well, we're. We had this one guy, Tom, he was really good. You know, he kept everybody busy. And, and it's like, yeah, well, Tom's dead and you know, Pablo here or whatever is. He's not going to make it.
Right.
So dispatchers, it's. You have all this work funneling through one constraint and it becomes a constraint and it's inconsistent. Right. Why, why would you have a dispatcher? I'm trying to understand why people still today. And what, what's a dispatcher make?
Oh, that's a good question.
Like on the low end, a dispatcher is making 50k.
I was thinking 40 to 50.
There's probably dispatchers making 100k because people just don't know what they're doing.
Yeah. And they've just kind of, they've survived.
Or they've been there forever, or they're the shop foreman, dispatcher or whatever.
So I feel like that happens a lot. It's like dispatch is the place where old techs can go to die sometimes. Like they, when they're. Then their hands aren't letting them work on cars anymore and they don't want to be the foreman anymore. They go to dispatch because they understand how the shop works, I think is the theory behind putting them in there. And usually what happens is that your high level technicians make a decent wage. Right. So they put them back in dispatch saying, we'll pay you what you made. And that's how they get to that point. I think normally from what I see, it's a. It's a 50k a year job.
So 20 years ago, I was getting rid of dispatch everywhere I went. Like, I would make the dispatcher. This is my move. When I would go into a service department, guess what I would do with the dispatcher? Before I tell you, every time I did the same thing. Shut off. No, believe it or not, most of the time dispatchers aren't that.
Outgoing.
Warranty administrator.
No.
I'm surprised you don't know this. Have you ever met a dispatcher that's super outgoing?
Most likely. Like there might be that one. But in general, not super outgoing. They're usually crabby.
Introverted. Yeah, they're crabby. Just the job alone makes people crabby. Yeah.
Because no one's ever happy.
Have you ever known a happy dispatcher?
You're gonna pay 50 grand to have a guy be miserable.
Yeah. And pile more work on him and make him more miserable.
So you're gonna create this constraint. That's miserable. That never smiles. That's introverted. Isn't outgoing. It's a constraint. It's an expensive constraint.
Extremely.
It's like, pay me $50,000, I'll come to your house and I'll put a little wedge in your door so you can't open it.
That's what it feels like. Why people have dispatch and then you.
Pay that guy every day to put it.
Okay, so back to my question. Everywhere I went, always dispatcher going away. But I would put them somewhere I wouldn't let him go.
Would you put them in charge of detail and recon?
No. I don't even understand why you would think that.
Oh, no, because you said it wasn't going to be a customer.
Most of the time dispatchers aren't handy like that.
Okay.
Like that's another thing. How many dispatchers have you known that are good at quality control?
I've had a couple.
Once again, it's old Tom the dead guy. Yeah, but no, they're not.
So you put them in quality control.
They can't. You know, the thing is, they can't. Quality control can't leave their little booth.
Yeah. They're locked in there, aren't they?
A little bit, yeah. Such a terrible idea. I don't know who thought of that. Didn't like ADCON or whatever, do away with that like 40 years ago.
Oh, yeah. They went to lateral support back in the 80s, I want to say.
Yeah, what's. What's going on with people? What was wrong with that?
Lateral as an industry.
I Have three things and one of them is lateral support.
Yeah.
That are better than a dispatcher.
Okay, I can guess another one.
Okay. But let me tell you what I would do with them.
Okay.
I'd make them internal advisors.
Yeah, that would work.
Yeah, it worked great. And guess what would happen to the hours in the shop?
They'd go up.
They would go up and we'd sell more. And the advisor, like we get rid of the constraint. Hours in the shop would go up by eliminating a constraint.
Yeah, that makes Sense.
It's business 101. Pay me $50,000. Anybody who has a dispatcher. I'll come over to your house and I'll put a wedge in your door and your front door. You'll come home every day and you'll be like, oh man, I gotta go around the back. And for a year you can go around the back. And then the following year pay me 60 grand because I'm gonna want to raise. I'll come over and put a wedge in your front door. Again, every time you come home, you can hit the front door and go, oh man. And walk around the back.
I'd probably hit my head on the door.
That's what having a dispatcher is like. I don't understand.
Okay.
I got three things that are better than having a dispatcher.
Okay.
And move your dispatcher to an internal. That's something we're gonna talk about coming up.
About used cars. And we'll talk about an internal advisor when we do that. Okay. The first thing you can do that works better than a dispatcher and tops it costs 25 bucks. You can save.
49,000, whatever.
49,975.
Yeah. You're going to spend 25 bucks on a rack. You know those racks, you can put ros in that spin. You put them in the or. No, just you don't like anyone rack up against the wall and you put them in there in the order they came in. And the, the techs come and get them in the order that they came in.
They're organized by RO number.
No, by however the advisors put them in order.
So there's a way already that they're organizing, could be dispatched accordingly.
Yeah, like you can do it a bunch of different ways. You can just do it as a first come, first serve. So whenever the advisor puts it in there, you could, you could split the shop in half and have odd numbers and even numbers on one side. $25. If you need two racks. 50 bucks, right?
Yeah, it's pretty cheap. More active that once you have to buy a rack a month.
What about digital dispatch?
I think electronic dispatch is. Is doable. You have to have somebody massage it a little bit.
But for $50,000, would you massage it a little bit? Yeah. What kind of massage would you give me for $50,000?
I don't think that we can talk about that on this podcast.
Let's be very, very specific. What kind of massage would you give me for $50,000?
A deep, deep tissue massage.
Yeah. So you could, you could figure out skill levels, op codes you could spend. For $50,000, you could spend a weekend figuring out your op codes.
Yeah, for sure.
Right, agreed. Okay, so we got a rack for $25. We got. And I don't know how much depends on your DMS or whatever, but it's.
Still hundreds, not thousands, to turn that system on.
And then number three, which really costs you nothing, is lateral support, which is the best of all three of these options. But all three of these are better than having a dispatcher. I don't understand. Yeah.
Also, what happens, Christian, when a service manager has a dispatcher and the dispatcher isn't there? What happens?
The service manager dispatches.
Yes. You call the service manager. What's going on? Oh, I got a dispatch dispatching today. It ends up you're dispatching half the year because the dispatchers got some. They got rare disease.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, they do have an ailment. You're right about that.
Remember this dispatcher I worked with that threw my ros in the alley.
Was a drunk. Yeah, I've told that story.
Yeah. With the coffee.
Yeah, his. So he would come in and make coffee before anybody. But he had a coffee thermos.
Yes.
One of the other advisors called me in once when he was in the bathroom or whatever, and he goes and he opens it and we smell it and it's whiskey. He's putting whiskey in his coffee.
Well, I think he's probably actually technically adding a little bit of coffee to his whiskey.
Thirty texts, probably somewhere around there. You couldn't find it. All you were doing was calling your customers by one o', clock telling them it wasn't going to see the shop. Yeah, that was it. You'd write them up and then tell them, you know, good luck, see ya.
You're going into the hole.
Guy's name was Joe. Good old Joe the drunk.
Yeah, he's not motivating anybody. Everybody pretends like these dispatchers are like some like super motivating football coach. Yeah, like who? Like who would be a football coach that you would know. That's super motivating.
Rockne.
Don Shula from the Dolphins. I'm just saying that cuz you're, you lived in Florida. Yeah, yeah. Like they think that the dispatchers like motivating everybody, firing everybody up. They're out there doing drills. They're like, you know, everybody drills minutes early ready to work on a car. No. Your dispatcher shows up, sits in his little booth, barely fills out a log sheet, doesn't know where anything is. Probably never checks the special order parts.
Never ever.
Love that $50,000. I'll come wedge your front door.
It's a constraint.
Yeah. It's also absolutely never their fault.
Never their fault ever.
That's so funny. Yeah.
Yeah. So that's my thoughts. We were in a meeting and everybody still had dispatch and I don't, I don't even understand.
They were clinging to it a little bit for sure. But I think there's a couple of people that were starting to, starting to make the turn. Yeah, I was, you know, I've been kind of traveling. I've gotten to go to some, some rare rural areas.
Is this your segue to a joke?
It might be. I don't know. That's right. Here it comes. But, but yeah, I was, I was, I was at this bar in rural Oklahoma. Three legged dog comes in, he says, I'm looking for the man. It shot my paw.
Look at it.
Pretty good.
Little corny.
I'm glad they didn't spit energy drink all over me.
Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333-ASK SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
