📘 Logistics at a Crossroads: Vol: 11 The Disappearing Dispatcher

The Disappearing Dispatcher

Roles are getting consolidated. People are burning out. And no one’s backfilling.

You don’t always notice when someone disappears in logistics.
Because the freight keeps moving.
Because someone else steps up.
Because “we’ll backfill later” becomes “we’ll figure it out.”

But here’s the quiet truth:
We’ve been absorbing departures instead of addressing them.
And it’s costing us.

Dispatchers are now doing planner work.
Clerks are handling order entry, billing, and customer escalations.
Admins are managing three inboxes and a radio.

This isn’t resilience.
It’s role erosion.

👤 “We didn’t replace them, but the work still got done.”
That sentence might look efficient in a quarterly report — but it hides a fracture.
Because the work isn’t getting done the same way.
It’s being stretched, rushed, dropped… or automated.

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🤖 AI is Here. But Humans Still Hold the Line.

Let’s talk about it: AI in dispatching is advancing fast.
Routing algorithms, digital load boards, predictive ETAs, automated check calls — all of it is designed to remove friction and, yes, reduce the need for human interaction.

For some companies, that’s a win.
Fewer touchpoints. Fewer salaries. More speed.

But logistics isn’t just math and motion.
It’s judgment. It’s intuition.
It’s hearing a driver’s tone and knowing something’s wrong — even when the system says everything is fine.
It’s calming down a shipper who’s ready to pull the load.
It’s rerouting based on weather, port delays, or something the AI hasn’t seen before.

AI can assist. It can optimize.
But it can’t empathize.

And in a world where human interaction is being filtered through dashboards and dispatch bots, the people doing the emotional labor — the late-night calls, the customer smoothing, the route problem-solving — are still here. Still stretched thin. And still not being backfilled.

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🚨 Quiet Gaps, Loud Consequences

“We didn’t replace them, but the work still got done.”
That might look efficient in a quarterly report — but it hides a fracture.

Logistics isn’t just math and motion.
It’s judgment. It’s intuition. It’s human.

AI can assist. It can optimize.
But it can’t empathize.

Freight may move faster with AI,
but resilience still requires a human touch.

The people doing the emotional labor?
They’re still here. Still stretched thin. Still not being backfilled.

When someone disappears in logistics,
we don’t pause — we absorb. Until we can’t anymore.

“They’ve absorbed it” is not a strategy.
It’s a warning.

Because while freight may move faster with AI,
resilience still requires a human touch.