Free course from OptiMile
Free training for your dispatch desk.
In the Hot Seat: A Fleet Dispatcher's Masterclass is 12 modules and 48 lessons written for dispatchers already working at fleets that run Class 7 and 8 trucks.
12
Modules
48
Lessons
37
Printable job aids
$0
To enroll
How Every Lesson Works
All 48 lessons follow the same pattern, so a dispatcher always knows where they are.
Opens at the Desk
Each lesson starts from a situation your dispatcher will recognize, then names what they will be able to do by the end.
Shows It Done
A worked example walks through the call, the check or the paperwork the way it happens at the desk.
Hands Them a Turn
Then your dispatcher works one themselves before moving on.
Hand It to Your Dispatch Desk
Most dispatchers learn the job from whoever sits next to them. This course writes it down, so the desk you already have gets sharper without you building a training program.
Module 1: What the rules will let you do
Loads that are legal before they are booked
Driving and duty limits, breaks and the restart, weight, size and permits, and whether a driver is fit to dispatch.
Module 4: Verifying who they are
Fraud caught before a truck is loaded
How freight fraud actually works, how to verify who is on the other end, and the red flags that should kill a booking.
Module 6: Proving what happened
Paperwork that proves what happened
Detention and accessorials, freight that shows up damaged or short, and keeping the record straight when a load goes wrong.
Module 7: Your drivers
Drivers who get straight answers
Home time you can promise and keep, pay disputes without escalation, and when to protect a tired driver instead of pushing.
7:10 AM, Wednesday. A driver calls from a dock 1,900 miles away, stuck there since 5:40. Somewhere in what they just said is a question your dispatcher is supposed to answer right now. That call is where The exception sequence (lesson 5.4) and Getting paid for waiting: detention and accessorials (lesson 6.2) pick up.
It also covers the ground most dispatcher training leaves out: your trucks and fuel, the systems on your desk, what you are hauling, and running freight to Canada.
Built to Give Back to the Trucking Community
OptiMile builds fuel planning software for trucking fleets, and dispatchers are the people who keep those fleets moving. Most of what they need to know gets learned the hard way on the job, or sold as a paid course.
We wrote this course to give some of that back, and we are giving it away. It teaches the job, not our product: no lesson pitches OptiMile, and you never need our software to use it.
What's Inside
12 modules and 48 lessons. Every lesson stands on its own, so a dispatcher can read the one they need this morning and come back for the rest.
The role of a dispatcher
- 0.1What this job actually is
- 0.2What this course cannot teach you
What the rules will let you do
- 1.1The three limits: 11, 14 and 60/70
- 1.2Breaks, the split sleeper, the restart, and the exceptions that actually apply
- 1.3Can this truck take this load: weight, size and permits
- 1.4Hazmat you never touch: the paperwork that makes you a hazmat employee
- 1.5Is this driver fit to dispatch: qualification, reasonable suspicion, and coercion
Building the plan
- 2.1Seeing Thursday on Monday: pre-planning the board
- 2.2Deadhead or wait
- 2.3Accepting and rejecting freight
- 2.4Who gets the good load
- 2.5Covering the empty truck
Who you are dealing with
- 3.1Who is on the other end of the phone
- 3.2Which posture is my fleet in, and what you can actually negotiate
- 3.3Reading a rate confirmation
- 3.4Buying capacity when you are short
Verifying who they are
- 4.1How the fraud actually works
- 4.2Verify before you load
- 4.3Being verifiable yourself
- 4.4The red flags that kill a booking
While the truck is moving
- 5.1Sending the driver: what they must be told before the wheels turn
- 5.2The tracking round, and the call when it goes quiet
- 5.3Telling them it will be late, and moving an appointment
- 5.4The exception sequence
- 5.5The clock is not going to reach
- 5.6Breakdown, weather and reroute
- 5.7The dock refuses the load
Proving what happened
- 6.1The paperwork round: what has to come back, and how you get it
- 6.2Getting paid for waiting: detention and accessorials
- 6.3When the freight is damaged or short
- 6.4The TMS as the system of record
Your drivers
- 7.1The driver's week is their paycheck
- 7.2Home time and the promises you can keep
- 7.3Pay disputes without escalation
- 7.4Push or protect: the tired driver
Your trucks and fuel
- 8.1The truck has a calendar
- 8.2Fuel policy: what it optimizes and why it exists
- 8.3Telematics and safety events
Your tools
- 9.1The tools on your desk
- 9.2What already has a machine doing it, and where your value sits
What you are hauling changes the job
- 10.1Dry van and reefer
- 10.2Flatbed
- 10.3Specialized
Running to Canada
- 11.1The clock changes at the border
- 11.2Going north
- 11.3Coming south
- 11.4Bonded freight, and what you must never do with it
- 11.5Who may drive it, and cabotage
Already dispatching, and found this on your own? It's free for you too. The course is written for dispatchers who already hold a seat at a fleet running Class 7 and 8 trucks, not as a way into the industry.
Get Your Free Login
Free for every dispatcher on your desk. Each one signs up with their own email and gets their own login.
- Step 1
Tell us where to send it
Just your name and work email.
- Step 2
Check your inbox
Your login to the course arrives by email.
- Step 3
Start any lesson
It runs in your browser, with nothing to install.
Frequently Asked Questions
Give Your Dispatch Desk a Head Start
Free, self-paced, and written for the desk you already have.