The dispatcher who talked me out of a hard deadline

For years I always promised customers a delivery date I knew was tight. A dispatcher in Phoenix named Ray pulled me aside after I booked a cross-country run with a 3 day window. He said, 'You're not a moving company, you're a shipping company. People remember the late ones.' He showed me his log of 200 runs where every 'quick' job turned into a phone call with a pissed-off owner. I started padding my estimates by 2 days and telling folks it could be faster, but not to count on it. Last month I ran Denver to Tampa in 4 days and the buyer was thrilled because I told him 6. Has anyone else switched to under-promising after a specific conversation like that? What did you change in your quoting process?

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laurabennett18d ago

Read a logistics blog that said the same thing. Perception beats reality every time.

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