Career
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance
Schedule and send out drivers, crews and equipment.
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Schedule or dispatch workers, work crews, equipment, or service vehicles to appropriate locations, according to customer requests, specifications, or needs, using radios or telephones.
- Prepare daily work and run schedules.
- Confer with customers or supervising personnel to address questions, problems, or requests for service or equipment.
- Relay work orders, messages, or information to or from work crews, supervisors, or field inspectors, using telephones or two-way radios.
- Receive or prepare work orders.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on information & systems, then objects & tools?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Schedule or dispatch workers, work crews, equipment, or service vehicles to appropriate locations, according to customer requests, specifications, or needs, using radios or telephones.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Active Listening, Speaking, Monitoring, Coordination.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though moderate-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $50,340 a year and 16,000 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/TechnicianCIP 52.0410
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- First-Line Supervisors of Passenger Attendants
- First-Line Supervisors of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators
- Public Safety Telecommunicators$53,040 · +3.7%
- Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters$78,000 · +0.9%
- Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks$59,650 · -1.3%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.