Dispatch center shift scheduling
A dispatch desk with nobody on it is a truck left waiting, a guard with no relief, a job that sits unassigned. Schedio is dispatch center shift scheduling – it shows you, minute by minute, who is on the desk and who is on call right now, and surfaces the gap before the next call comes in, not after a driver or a client is already on hold.
How a day runs
5:50 am. Dana, the operations lead, opens the board before the 6 am turnover: two dispatchers on the morning desk, one supervisor floating, Theo on call for overflow until the 2 pm flip. The overnight hand-off note is already there: a late route got re-assigned at 3 am, one client asked for a callback "first thing," and the south radio channel was noisy after midnight – flagged as the first notice for the next shift.
At 10:40 am the overnight dispatcher offers Thursday's whole desk shift to the pool – a court date she can't move. Theo, already on call for overflow, claims it at 10:52. The pending claim lands in Dana's Requests inbox with an email behind it, and she approves it from the dashboard before the next radio check-in. No one had to call around to find cover.
At 1:55 pm the morning desk starts the 2 pm flip. The note they leave is specific to the desk: two routes still rolling with ETAs pushed past 3, a driver holding at the depot for his relief, one client inside a delivery window the contract says can't slip, and the south channel still worth monitoring. The afternoon pair read it before the first radio call lands. The demo shows that exact screen with sample data.
What it solves
Round-the-clock desk coverage on one live timeline
every dispatcher, supervisor and on-call seat visible at once, with overnight shifts that cross midnight drawn the way they are worked.
Minimum-on-the-desk rules
so the board flags it the moment coverage drops below the count you set for that hour – a thinly covered 3 am is visible days ahead, not discovered when a call rings out.
Shift hand-off notes
per desk: which jobs are open, which client is waiting, which route slipped. Time-stamped, structured, kept with the shift so the next person starts informed.
Real-time alerts
when a desk actually runs uncovered – pushed to the Slack channel your operations team already watches, with the gap visible on the dashboard days ahead.
Roles included by default
Dispatcher · Senior dispatcher · Call-taker · Shift supervisor · On-call dispatcher · Operations manager. Rename any of them to match your own desk – the schedule grid picks the new names up the moment you save. Import your current roster from a CSV, preview every row, and commit once when it looks right.
Common questions
Can it cover a 24/7 desk?
Yes – overnight is where dispatch coverage is hardest to keep. The 10 pm-to-6 am desk shift draws as one shift, not two halves, and minimum-headcount rules keep counting through the night: if your contracts call for two on the desk at 3 am, a schedule with one shows up as a gap days before that night arrives.
How do dispatchers hand off open work?
In the hand-off note, in desk terms: which jobs are still unassigned, which driver is running behind and by how much, which client was promised a callback. Your dispatch software and phone system keep the jobs and calls themselves – Schedio keeps the context the next dispatcher needs before the radio gets busy.
Which chat tools does it notify?
Urgent alerts and live coverage gaps land in the Slack channel your operations team connects, with a severity threshold you set. Individual dispatchers can pull up their own schedule and get shift reminders on Telegram or WhatsApp, and everyone can receive email digests.
What does a multi-desk operation cost?
Each desk or site is a location at $49 a month, all on one account – dispatchers, supervisors and on-call seats included, with a 14-day free trial and no card. See full [pricing](/pricing).
What we deliberately don't do
Schedio does not route calls, assign jobs, or track vehicles – and it is not built for 911 or emergency dispatch, where life-safety systems and their own procurement rules belong. We sit next to your dispatch and phone tools and answer the question they don't: who is actually on the desk right now, who relieves them, and what the next shift needs to know. The same dashboard runs security teams and support desks, anywhere a desk is handed from one shift to the next.
No card · 14 days free · cancel anytime · $49 + tax per location