02After-hours dispatch
After-hours dispatch for fuel delivery companies.
After-hours dispatch is live coverage of your phones from your close to your open — customer calls and driver calls both — by someone empowered to make real dispatch decisions instead of taking a message. This page covers what it includes, how it differs from an answering service, and what it costs for a propane, heating oil, diesel, gasoline or specialty fuel operation.
The definition
What after-hours dispatch actually means.
Your office closes. The phones don't stop. A customer calls at 9 p.m. to say the tank is empty, a driver calls at 2 a.m. from a terminal that won't load him, and a landlord calls Sunday morning about a smell of gas. After-hours dispatch is the function that answers those calls in your company's name and resolves them — routing a truck, waking the right person, or booking the delivery for first thing — under rules you wrote in advance.
It is a dispatch function, not a reception function. That distinction is the whole difference between a night that runs itself and a morning spent untangling twelve voicemails.
- Your customers' calls: delivery ETA questions, will-call orders, run-out reports and complaints, answered live in your company's name. For most fuel operations this is the bigger half of the after-hours phone.
- Your drivers' calls: terminal problems, breakdowns, route changes and load questions, answered by someone who has worked the same problems.
- Real dispatch decisions: loads coordinated and drivers routed against your playbook, not messages left in a queue.
- Emergency escalation: leaks, spills, breakdowns and run-outs handled per your written procedures — the right person woken up, the wrong person left asleep.
- A written morning report: every call, every decision, every escalation, waiting when you open.
See an ordinary night on the desk, hour by hour.
The comparison operators ask about most
After-hours dispatch vs. an answering service.
They are sold as the same product and they are not. An answering service is trained to capture a message accurately. A dispatch desk is trained to end the call with the problem solved.
Same phone call, two different nights
| After-hours dispatch | Answering service | |
|---|---|---|
| Customer reports a run-out at 11 p.m. | Triaged against your rules — truck tonight, or booked first thing and the customer told which | Message taken, customer told someone will call back |
| Driver stuck at the terminal | Worked through by someone who has done it | Message taken |
| Knows a bobtail from a transport | ✓ | ✗ |
| Authority to route a truck | ✓ Within limits you set | ✗ None |
| Emergency judgment | ✓ Your written escalation ladder | Escalates everything, or nothing |
| What you wake up to | A written report of resolved calls | A voicemail queue to work through |
The longer version, including staffing your own night desk, is on Why Meridian.
Who this is for
Built for fuel, not for everybody.
Propane & heating oil
Run-outs, will-call orders and winter emergency deliveries — the calls where a wrong answer at midnight costs you a customer or a callback truck roll.
Diesel, gasoline & specialty fuels
Terminal delays, load coordination and driver problems overnight — for delivery fleets and transport operations alike — handled by someone who knows what a six-hour line at the rack means for tomorrow's routes.
2 trucks or 150
However many roll after hours, the desk covers them the same way — sized to your call volume, from a handful of run-outs a night to a full winter surge.
Nationwide coverage, in your local time zone — your close to your open, seven nights a week.
What it costs
From $3,750 a month, month-to-month.
Three things set your number: how many trucks run after hours, how many hours you need covered, and how much call volume comes in. Full nights-and-weekends coverage works out to $12 to $36 per covered hour for a live fuel expert on your phones, depending on your fleet size and call volume. Staffing those same hours in-house runs $29 to $40 an hour loaded — one hire still cannot cover seven nights a week, and since nobody takes a 28-hour overnight job it is three full-time people either way.
There is no long-term contract. Month-to-month, cancel with 30 days' written notice, either direction.
See the full pricing breakdown and cost calculator, or read how the one-week handoff works.
A night on the desk
When your office closes, it stops being your problem.
We cover your phones from your close to your open, seven nights a week, plus full weekends and holidays. Customers calling about deliveries and drivers calling from the road both reach us. Here is an ordinary Tuesday night with Meridian on the desk.
The handoff
Your phones forward to our desk. Your dispatcher locks up and goes home for the night.
Six-hour line at the terminal
Your propane driver calls from the rack. The line ahead of him is six hours deep. We check your supply agreements and send him to the next terminal over, where your gallons are already under contract. He's loading within the hour.
A customer wants to know where his truck is
One of your larger accounts calls about a delivery he expected today. We pull up the route, tell him where he sits on tomorrow's first run and give him a real window instead of a promise to call back. He hangs up satisfied and you never hear about it.
Route problem, solved
A driver calls about a stop he can't make. We rework the route and update the board. Your phone never rings.
Emergency runout
A customer calls us directly, out of heating oil with the furnace off in February. We dispatch the on-call driver and stay with it until the drop is made. You're asleep.
The morning report
Every call, every decision and every delivery from the night is in your inbox before your day team sits down.
Ready to hand off the night shift?
Answer a few questions about your operation and you'll see your estimated monthly range instantly, then an exact proposal within 24 hours.