TORONTO — Imagine this: In some companies, dispatchers meet regularly with customers, face to face, to bring up problems the drivers are having on the road.

“That’s right,” explains Ben O’Hara, a six-year vet working with Trimac Transportation out of Sarnia, Ont. “If I hear from one of my drivers that they have to drive through six inches of mud in a parking lot, I’ll bring it to the customer’s attention, hopefully so the customer can do something about it.”

Actually, according to O’Hara the key to successful dispatching — which results in good relationships with drivers as well as customers — all around communication is the key to being an effective dispatcher.

He should know. O’Hara, 36, was named the Shaw Tracking Dispatcher of the Year this morning at the opening ceremonies of Truck World 2008. In the presentation, Shaw Vice President Mike Ham said the committee heard from some of O’Hara’s customers as well as his drivers, and they were all in concert: The guy’s a joy to work with.

O’Hara says it doesn’t hurt to have a supportive company like Trimac especially if they arrange monthly dispatcher/customer meetings like he has.

That way, he says, if a driver has a beef with something that went wrong on a delivery, O’Hara can promise to raise it at the next meeting.

“Say there was an extra long wait, or something. If there are any transportation issues or safety issues, we’ll talk about them.”

Trimac dispatchers are actually called Traffic Supervisors and O’Hara supervises more than 50 owner-operators running all across North America.

Said one of the drivers to the nominating committee: “Ben has special people skills, and he treats you with respect whether you just started your career yesterday or been here for years.”

O’Hara, a native of Petroleum Springs, Ont., is father to Tyler and Joshua and when he accepted the Dispatcher of the Year award after the Truck World opening breakfast, he took the podium with his wife Cheryl.