How to build a daily construction dispatch schedule

A daily dispatch schedule answers four questions for every person, machine and truck: where to go, when to be there, what the work is and who is in charge. When it answers them clearly, the day starts on time. When it doesn't, the first hour goes to phone calls.

This guide sets out a practical method for building one, from collecting job requests to publishing the plan and handling changes once the day is under way. It works for a paving contractor with three crews and for a civil contractor with ten.

What a dispatch schedule is, and what it is not

The dispatch is the operating plan for one day. It is not the project schedule, which covers weeks or months, and it is not the plant order, which covers mix and tonnes.

A good dispatch draws on both. It turns "we pave Stage 2 this week" into "this crew, this paver, these rollers and these trucks, at this location, starting at this time, tomorrow".

Step 1: Collect each job's requirements

Set a fixed time each afternoon when foremen and project managers send in tomorrow's needs. A standard request means nothing depends on someone remembering to call.

Each request should cover:

• Project and location: job number, address and the exact work area, such as a station range, phase or lot.
• Work and quantity: the activity and planned amount, for example "HL3 surface, 40 mm, 320 t" or "fine grade 640 m".
• Three separate times: when the crew starts, when the first load is needed at the paver, and when each truck reports to the plant or pit.
• Crew: the size of crew and the roles needed, not just a headcount.
• Equipment: machines, attachments and support units such as a tack truck or water truck.
• Trucking: company trucks and broker trucks, with type and count.
• Materials: mix or aggregate, plant or pit, and any deliveries to site.
• Site constraints: permitted work hours, traffic control layout, access, inspections or client meetings.

Keep the three times apart. A crew that starts at 7:00 AM to sweep and tack, a first load at 9:30 AM and trucks reporting to the plant from 8:45 AM are three different instructions. Merging them into one "start time" is a common source of confusion.

Step 2: Lay out the jobs before the people

Start with the work, not the roster. List tomorrow's jobs and rank them by what cannot move: a client commitment, a booked road closure, the plant's first available load or another trade waiting on your work.

Then decide what goes ahead, what can slip a day and what depends on the weather. That ranking tells you where to protect resources when something has to give.

Step 3: Assign crews, then fill the gaps

If your foremen run standard crews, place those first and adjust for absences, vacation and training. Reusable crews save planning time and keep people who work well together on the same job.

Then check roles, not numbers. A paving crew without a screed operator, or a grading crew with nobody to run the grader, is short even if the headcount looks right.

As a rule, assign each person to one job for the day. If someone has to split the day, show both assignments with times and allow for the travel between them.

Step 4: Assign equipment, trailers and attachments

Assign each machine with its operator, and check its status first. A roller that is down for repair or a loader in for service should not appear on tomorrow's plan.

Be specific about attachments. A skid steer with a broom and a skid steer with a cold planer head are different assignments. The same goes for support units: if the job needs the tack truck, put it on the dispatch.

If a machine has to move between jobs before tomorrow's start, the move is part of the plan. Schedule the float, the driver and the time the machine must be ready at the destination. Our guide to managing equipment moves between jobsites covers the details.

Step 5: Match trucking to the work

On paving and earthworks, trucks follow production. The number you need depends on how fast the plant can load, how fast the crew can place and how long one truck takes to complete a full round trip.

The Asphalt Paving Handbook's planning section breaks that cycle into loading and ticketing, tarping, hauling, waiting on site, dumping and cleaning, and returning, and rounds the truck count up. Stagger report times so loads arrive at a steady interval instead of all at once.

For booking and managing hired trucks, see coordinating broker trucks on paving projects.

Step 6: Check for conflicts before you publish

Before the plan goes out, run through a short check:

• Is any person, machine or truck on two jobs at once?
• Does every machine have an operator, and every operator a machine?
• Is anything assigned that is down, in for service or in transit?
• Do the crew start, first-load and truck report times make sense together?
• Does every job have a named foreman or lead hand?
• Are the notes the crew needs on the assignment, such as "adjust three maintenance hole frames before paving"?
• Are tomorrow's equipment moves booked, with ready times?

It takes a few minutes and catches the problems that otherwise surface at the yard gate.

Step 7: Publish one version, then confirm in the morning

Publish the plan in one place that everyone uses. If the same dispatch exists as a whiteboard photo, a spreadsheet and a group text, sooner or later someone will act on the wrong one.

Number your versions. Revision 1 is what went out; revision 2 is the next change. Marking what changed in each revision helps people see what affects them.

Many paving contractors also make an early-morning weather call, because contract specifications set weather and temperature limits for paving. If start times move, the crews, the plant and the brokers all need to hear, and the dispatch should show the new times. Our guide to common asphalt paving dispatch problems covers how to make that call reach everyone.

Handling changes during the day

Few dispatches survive the day unchanged. Trucks break down, a machine is needed elsewhere or a job finishes early. Treat each change like the original plan:

1. Decide the change and who it affects.
2. Edit the dispatch and publish it as a new revision.
3. Tell the affected people directly, including anyone outside your system, such as the broker or the plant.
4. Note the reason, so the end-of-day record explains what happened.

Here is an example. A grading crew finishes its section by noon, half a day ahead of plan, while the paving crew across town is short of hands for the afternoon's driveway tie-ins.

The dispatcher moves two labourers and the skid steer to the paving job for the afternoon, publishes revision 2 and calls both foremen. The grading foreman knows who is leaving, the paving foreman knows who is coming, and the record shows where each person and machine worked for each part of the day.

A typical dispatch rhythm

Times vary with the job, the client's permitted hours, the plant and the season. As a starting point, many contractors work to a rhythm like this:

Where software fits

A whiteboard or spreadsheet can work for one or two crews. As crews, machines and trucks multiply, what matters is one plan across every project, explicit times, a clear published status and a view crews can open on a phone.

In STRACTA, dispatchers plan crews, equipment and broker trucks for every project on one board and publish it, and foremen and crews see their assignment in My Day on their phone and can acknowledge it. Assignments can also be spoken or typed: tell STRACTA what you need, and it adds the assignment to the board, ready to review and publish.

If you are comparing options, our checklist on what to look for in construction dispatch software can help.