any one ever been one, are one , whats the job like , are you under pressure, or is it a steady number .any info. ta
this thread will get some great replys 
i cant express my view of planners because ZB ZB ZB ZB ZB ZB keeps coming up
one planner i used to have had spent the previous few years in the accounts dept. 
no wonder i wasn’t earning any money
having naff all idea of geography is a good start from my knowledge
Oh where to start, so little server space
being a crap darts player is one qualification 
,
cos the logic they use can only be gained from throwing darts into an upside down map of the wrong country.
They’ve gotta have failed maths, cos they don’t understand:
the relationship between Speed, Distance and Time . oh and factoring breaks, un/loading time, HGV speed limits, congestion, and why is it they send you to your furthest drop first whilst heavy■■? and then you find out you’ve got the ■■■■■■ invoice address not the delivery address.
I find that the best planners are ex drivers but not all drivers make good planners
stringy:
I find that the best planners are ex drivers but not all drivers make good planners
So true, we have one thats an ex driver. Well I dont know what he drove in his days on the road or how many tachos a day he went through! But as we now only use the one LOL we do find his ideas of a days work a little difficult!
ady1:
any one ever been one, are one , whats the job like , are you under pressure, or is it a steady number .any info. ta
Dangerous question to ask on a DRIVERS forum… 
I was a planner once, a few years back. It depends what you are dealing with, sometimes you have massive lead times, decent planning should be a doddle, other occasions lead times are much shorter so you fly by the seat of your pants a bit more.
Planners are often on less money than drivers though (certainly that is the case where I am now). Saying that though, a decent planner is worth his weight in gold to his company, a bad planner can cost his company thousands.
In container logistics planners are often on upwards of £25K plus company car but work at least 10 hours a day with out of hours queries to sort, it can be a very intensive job and you need a logical mind with a good sense of geography
I got into this planning thing on a small scale by opening my big gob 
I had been with a steel company who had their own in-house transport and when I joined in 88 it was only 5 or 6 trucks so no prob for the warehouse super to work out who was taking what and what weight would fit etc.
As the company, and it’s fleet grew very quickly in the 90s, it became clear that this guy could not cope very well on the planning side.
In steps Mr BIG GOB (ME) and says “that looks simple” at which point he looked at me and left the room, leaving all the delivery sheets sprawled on the desk.
I knew what fleet we had, how many subbies were due in what trucks they had and what the weight limits were on each truck & the delivery dockets so…
I had fun working it out for 17 of our trucks and up to 10 subbies - sorted the lot out in about 30 mins and even started to draw little loading plans for the forkies who would be loading them - I am sad
After that I was usually given shortish runs to get back for about 3pm so I could do the planning etc
I know it was only a small bit of planning but it was enjoyable 
A planners job will never be easy - the reason is the very difficult balancing act one has to perform to try to keep everyone happy.
On the one side they have the management insisting that the KPI’s are improved and they get more deliveries per truck or run less kms per drop. On the other side they have the drivers who (I know this may offend - but it’s not just drivers, it’s most people who work for a wage) generally want to do as little as possible for as much money as possible.
It’s a specialised job, being able to appease the worries of the drivers while keeping the trucks earning enough to keep the Management happy.
As has been said, I generally find that ex-drivers make some of the best planners - but not all ex-drivers make good planners. It’s the ability to do a ‘Wurzel Gummage ’ - change heads depending on the situation that makes a good planner excel.
One thing to bear in mind though, planners generally are not on very good money unless they are very experienced and on some of the more prestigious work.
Well summed up, Ski; you forgot to add that a thick skin is also a necessary qualification! 
Like any job in the office, you will be resigned to the fact that every driver can do it far better than you can!
I did it for a while for Meachers’ at Derby; it’s not as easy as it looks!
reminds me of what i said to our useless planner at halfords"the only difference between planners and drivers is about 10 grand" got all the ■■■■■■ northern runs after that 
stringy:
I find that the best planners are ex drivers but not all drivers make good planners
I find that the worst planners are ex drivers.
But to be fair to most planners it can be a very hard job with very little thanks, what ever they do someone will be upset,
I would never do the job unless I was desperate.
Saying that I was a planner in an army unit just before I left and that wasn’t too bad, 40 ambulances 25 land rovers and about 60 HGV’s, but we didn’t have too much work and mostly it was just land rovers that were used
maverick72:
reminds me of what i said to our useless planner at halfords"the only difference between planners and drivers is about 10 grand"
PMSL, better than the South East though.
It all depends on the firm and the drivers. Pay can be a big issue, and a some of drivers moving into the office may struggle with the pay cut. You are on a permanent tightrope, caught between the boss (who wants to earn maximum money and pay the drivers as little as possible) and the drivers (who want to work as little as possible and earn the big bucks). That said, when it all comes together there can be a great sense of achievement.
You quickly learn a couple of tricks - never, ever, show any driver the run sheet. Because you will spend the next half hour explaining why you’ve planned it that way. Drivers never understand that sometimes there is no way of choosing what work they do than by picking it randomly or tossing a coin.
Find, and build a good relationship, with a couple of decent contractors, they will pull you out of the brown stuff over and over again.
You will hate being on-call, and you’ll be amazed how many stupid questions people can ring you up and ask at 3 in the morning.
In my experience there is a massive difference between third-party and own-account haulage. I work in own-account and the pressure is well and truly off. Big fleet, just enough work, and everyone is on big bucks (including us). Third-party is pressured, and in my experience, generally thankless. You will always have more work than trucks, because that’s how they make money.
Oh, I forgot… CPC is pretty much a must. You probably won’t need it legally, as the TM will have one, but it’s a big help. A decent firm should put you through it if you ask nicely. Also a copy of the Transport Manager’s and Operator’s Handbook in your drawer, for quick reference when someone asks an awkward question.
garnerlives:
having naff all idea of geography is a good start from my knowledge
Also the ability to give your mates the cream work and the drivers you hate all the cr@p 
The ability to take backhanders is also a handy qualification
Similar to ROG many years ago I used to do an early run from Birmingham to East Leake swap trailers and then back to the warehouse - then sort out the loads for next day. There was only 3 of us working from there , 1 sales manager, 1 forkilift/warehouse guy and me… The local deliveries - nearly all multi drop - were carried out by a number of owner drivers and small fleets - all on a pretty generous daily rate - job and knock
If it was just planning the loads the job would be simple, but I guarentee every day something would happen to screw up the planning- from a subbie simply not turning up, trucks breaking down to drivers having to come back to the warehouse and drop off the 10 tonnes of gear on top of everything else because the site wasnt ready for them.
But If I planned the routes so each driver had a couple hours leeway to take up the slack with such problems then I got grief from the manager as the trucks were under utalised, the drivers simply never came back to the warehouse until the morning (Most parked up and in the pub for 3pm) and those from the small fleets doing collections from their own other customers
I also lost count of the time the sales manager would appear at 4.45pm after all the loads were picked and made up ready for the morning with a whole bunch of extra deliveries that he had either just got through, or forgotten to bring out earlier, and always he had guarenteed those customers delivery first thing.
Straight forward planning wasnt a great problem , knowing the gear, and the trucks and what would fit where was 90% of the battle. Dealing with the unexpected when there was little or no slack in the system to cover it was.
As most on here will testify, you don’t even need a brain to be a “Planner”.
I have never met a planner that has a brain! Has anyone else??