The phrase truck dispatch is used by two industries that share almost nothing. Freight dispatch moves loads between points and lives on rates, lanes and hours of service. Service dispatch moves a person and their equipment to a customer who is waiting. Buying the first when you needed the second is an expensive mistake, and the product names do nothing to stop you making it.
The load and the promise
A freight dispatcher optimises a sequence of pickups and deliveries against cost per mile. A service dispatcher works against windows somebody promised a customer, which are fixed points the driving has to fit around. The two disciplines are both called dispatch and they optimise for different things, so the software diverges immediately.
Where a service business genuinely has trucks
Septic, drainage, plant hire and larger installation work all dispatch vehicles that are more than a van, sometimes with volume or weight as a real constraint alongside the hours. That is still service dispatch: the constraint is added to the schedule rather than replacing it, and the visit to the customer is still the object.
What travel costs whichever kind you are
On the worked example this site publishes, 22% of the working day goes on travel, which is 144 jobs a month worth $41,081 of capacity. Vehicle running costs are a separate line again, and the Internal Revenue Service standard mileage rates are the usual reference point for what a business mile is treated as costing.
Hours rules differ and they matter
Freight operations sit under a body of hours of service rules that service businesses generally do not. What both share is the ordinary employment position on what counts as hours worked, which the Department of Labor sets out at 29 CFR Part 785, and a schedule that ignores it is choosing a payroll cost without pricing it.
Questions people ask about truck dispatch software
We do both haulage and service calls. Now what?
Usually two systems, or one that is genuinely good at your larger half. Products that claim both tend to be a freight tool with a service tab.
Does Dispatchzo handle freight?
No, and we would rather say so plainly than sell you a board that is the wrong shape for a load.
Is vehicle tracking part of this?
It is a different product. A status on the job answers where are you now for most service businesses without buying telematics.