Most people think dispatching is answering the phone.

I used to think that too.

Then I spent a night in the dispatch chair.

My shift started at 6:00 PM. The day dispatcher gave me a quick handoff. One truck was down for repairs. Another driver was already running late. A third was having a bad day and was one frustrating call away from going home. Nothing unusual, apparently.

The first couple of hours weren’t terrible. A lockout. A dead battery. A couple of insurance calls. I was just starting to think I had things under control when everything fell apart.

At 9:30 PM, a state trooper called for an accident tow on the interstate. While I was getting the details, another line started ringing. Then another. Then another.

The second call was a motor club customer stranded in a Walmart parking lot. The third was a fleet manager whose delivery truck had broken down and was blocking a loading dock. The fourth was a customer who had been waiting over an hour and was furious.

Now every driver I had was tied up.

The trooper wanted an ETA. The fleet manager wanted a truck immediately. The motor club wanted constant updates. The angry customer wanted my supervisor.

I glanced at the clock. It had been twelve minutes since the first call came in.

By 11:00 PM things finally settled down, or at least I thought they had. That’s when a police impound call came through. A wrecked car needed to be picked up immediately.

I dispatched the closest truck.

Ten minutes later the driver called me back.

The car was locked. The steering was damaged. The owner had disappeared with the keys. The officer didn’t know where they were.

What should have been a routine impound turned into a forty-five-minute mess involving phone calls, delays, and a very unhappy officer.

While I was dealing with that, another customer called for a tire change. Simple enough.

Except it wasn’t.

When the driver arrived, the customer didn’t have the lug nut key. The wheel couldn’t be removed. Now the service call needed to become a tow. The price changed. The destination changed. The customer thought we were trying to scam them.

And somehow, that became my problem too.

By midnight I had answered more calls than I could count. I had updated insurance companies, handled fleet accounts, coordinated with law enforcement, calmed angry customers, rerouted drivers, and fixed mistakes that had nothing to do with me.

The thing most people don’t understand about dispatching is that it isn’t one job.

It’s twenty jobs happening at the same time.

You have to know where every truck is. Which drivers can handle specialty equipment. Which motor clubs have special rules. Which fleet accounts get priority. Who is about to go off shift. Who is on call. Who is already overwhelmed.

And while you’re trying to keep all of that straight, the phone never stops ringing.

Around 4:00 AM I finally looked up at the clock.

I hadn’t eaten since lunch. My coffee was cold. The dispatch board was still full.

Just then another call came in.

A stranded motorist on the side of the highway.

Another problem.

Another emergency.

Another person who needed help right now.

I took a deep breath and answered the phone with the same calm voice I’d been using all night.

Because that’s what dispatchers do.

Most people only remember the tow truck that finally showed up.

They never think about the dispatcher who spent the entire night making sure it got there.