Two decisions, two timeframes
- Scheduling happens days or weeks out, made by whoever owns the calendar, against capacity and readiness.
- Dispatch happens the day before or the morning of, made by whoever owns the day, against real crew availability, travel and priority.
- Scheduling changes affect the customer's expectations. Dispatch changes usually affect only your route.
What the job record must supply to each
- To scheduling: readiness status, required skills, realistic duration, customer availability windows, hard deadlines.
- To dispatch: the sold scope, access notes, contact details, the documents the crew must have on site, and what completion looks like.
The gap between them
A job placed on the calendar and never dispatched is one of the most expensive failures in operations: the customer expects you, the day is consumed, and nobody was sent. It happens when the calendar is treated as the whole system and no one owns the day-of pass.
The fix is a daily review of tomorrow — every scheduled job has a named crew, a sequence position, and no unresolved readiness item.
When the day breaks
Callouts, overruns and emergencies are dispatch problems until they consume a commitment. The moment a job cannot be performed on its scheduled date, it becomes a scheduling problem again and the customer must be told — by a person, promptly, with a new date rather than an apology alone.