A commercial refrigeration dispatcher decides which tech goes to which store, weighing the product at risk, the skills the repair needs and each chain's response promise. They run the board for emergency calls, repairs and maintenance visits, and keep store managers posted on arrival times.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, HVAC and plumbing contractors · BLS, May 2025
You'll run the technicians' day and decide who goes where when product is at risk. You'll assign emergency calls, repairs and preventive maintenance visits by skill, certification and location, track response times against each service agreement, and keep stores and technicians informed.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Assign calls by urgency, skill and certification: a rack alarm goes to a lead technician, while an ice machine cleaning can go to a newer tech.
Track the response time in each customer's service agreement and escalate calls at risk of missing it.
Check technicians in and out on customer portals and phone systems where the customer requires it.
Schedule preventive maintenance visits around store hours, deliveries and each technician's route.
Hand overnight calls to the on-call technician and backup, and log what happened by morning.
Book return visits for parts, and tell the store when to expect them.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Build the morning board from overnight calls, scheduled repairs and maintenance visits.
Reassign calls as jobs run long or emergencies come in.
Call stores with arrival times and updates.
Track special-order parts that hold up return visits.
Close out the board and brief the on-call technician at the end of the day.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Emergency calls dispatched within target time: [your target].
Agreement response times met: [your target].
Calls reassigned for a skill or parts mismatch: [your target].
Portal check-ins and check-outs completed: [your target].
Return visits booked before the tech leaves: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[2+] years of dispatch or scheduling for field technicians.
Quick, sound decisions between two urgent jobs, and the ability to explain them to customers.
Knowledge of your service area, or the ability to learn it fast.
Comfort running [your dispatch software], phones and customer portals at the same time.
6. Preferred Experience
Dispatch experience in commercial refrigeration, HVAC or restaurant equipment service.
Knows which equipment problems put product at risk.
Experience with chain customers' work order portals.
7. Physical Requirements
Sit at a computer and on the phone for most of the shift.
Track several screens and calls at once.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Dispatch desk at [branch], [your hours].
Late shifts or on-call nights in rotation: [schedule].
Heavier workload in hot weather.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new dispatcher gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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What changes for a dispatcher at a refrigeration contractor
The board is built around food that can spoil, chain contracts and a few sites with rules of their own. These are the parts a dispatcher from another trade has to learn.
Ammonia plants take approved techs only
When a cold storage site's ammonia system holds 10,000 pounds or more, OSHA's process safety rule covers it. The contractor must train each worker it sends in safe work practices. It must tell them the site's hazards and emergency plan, keep a record of that training, and make sure they follow the site's safety rules. Send only techs whose training for that site is on file, even when someone else is closer. Source: 29 CFR 1910.119: Process safety management, contractors (eCFR).
Repaired leaks come back on a calendar
When an HFC store system, or one on a covered substitute, has gone over its leak rate and been fixed, the owner owes more leak inspections. Systems of 500 pounds or more get one every three months until four quarters in a row stay under the rate. Systems of at least 15 but under 500 pounds get one a year until a full year does. The schedule starts when the follow-up verification test passes, so book the first date then. Source: 40 CFR 84.106(g): Leak inspections (eCFR).
A long wait for parts may mean a trailer
When a walk-in compressor or an evaporator coil is a special order, the store can't wait days with product inside. Keep a list of companies near each branch that rent refrigerated trailers or portable boxes. Ask the service manager early whether the store needs one. Tell the store the part's ship date as soon as you have it.
The portal check-in is part of the visit
Many chains want each visit logged in and out through their portal or phone line. A missed check-in can hold up the invoice or count against your response time. Watch the board for techs on site with no check-in, and text them before they start work.
How much commercial refrigeration dispatchers make
Dispatchers who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $22.83 an hour ($47,480 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $50,340 median for dispatchers in all industries. About 12,070 of the 202,810 dispatchers in that survey work for HVAC and plumbing contractors.
HVAC and plumbing contractors
$47,480$47,480 median Middle half $42,120–$56,740 10th–90th $36,830–$64,260
All industries
$50,340$50,340 median Middle half $42,750–$62,450 10th–90th $36,030–$78,140
$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
HVAC and plumbing contractors
$36,830
$42,120
$47,480
$56,740
$64,260
All industries
$36,030
$42,750
$50,340
$62,450
$78,140
BLS doesn’t publish pay for refrigeration contractors on their own. These figures cover plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Choosing between two warm boxes and telling both stores the truth
Checking each tech's skills and certification type before assigning
Running phones, the board and chain portals at once
Learning a two-branch service area and its traffic
Clear notes for the on-call handoff
Teach these on the job
Which equipment failures put product at risk
Each chain's response times and check-in rules
Your dispatch software and the store records in it
Site rules at ammonia and cold storage accounts
Supply houses and their cutoff times for same-day pickup
Dispatch runs from the field service software's board and map, the phone system, and the chains' work order portals open side by side. Some stores also send alarms from their case controllers by email or text, so the dispatcher may watch an inbox too.
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Matching skill to emergency
A grocery rack alarm and a restaurant's warming walk-in freezer come in together. You have one lead technician and one newer technician free. How do you assign them?
A strong answer: Sends the lead to the rack (more product, more complexity), sends the newer technician to the walk-in with the lead on phone backup, checks response times, and calls both stores with honest arrival times.
Behavioral · Shift handoffs
Tell me how you've handed off open emergency calls, like a rack alarm or a warm walk-in, to the night or on-call shift.
A strong answer: Describes a clear handoff: open calls, parts on order, customer notes, backup contacts, and how they checked in the morning.
You fill in each template target yourself. Track a full summer and winter at your own branches first, because the board looks different in each.
Emergency calls dispatched within target time
Measure from the time the call or alarm is logged to the time a tech accepts it, using the software's time stamps. Report nights and weekends apart from office hours.
Agreement response times met
Compare each emergency and repair call's arrival time with the response time in that customer's agreement. Report misses by account, since one chain's rules may be tighter than the rest.
Calls reassigned for a skill or parts mismatch
Tag every reassignment with its reason in the dispatch software. Count those caused by the wrong skill, the wrong certification or missing parts, and review the list with the service manager monthly.
Portal check-ins and check-outs completed
Compare visits in your software with check-in and check-out records in each chain's portal. Count visits missing either one, and note which techs and accounts miss most.
Return visits booked before the tech leaves
For tickets that need a second trip, check whether the return visit was on the board before the first visit's check-out time. Count those booked later.
How does a refrigeration dispatcher choose between two warm boxes?
Ask what's inside, how warm it is and how fast it's climbing. A freezer full of ice cream usually goes before a produce cooler at the same reading. A store with room in a second walk-in can hold product longer. Call the store you're sending to second, give an honest time and suggest moving product. Then tell the service manager.
How much does a commercial refrigeration dispatcher make?
Dispatchers who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $22.83 an hour ($47,480 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $42,120 and $56,740 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
How should a dispatcher plan around grocery holiday weeks?
The days before Thanksgiving and other big holidays are when stores pack their cases and can least afford a down unit. Ask each chain whether it pauses non-urgent work those weeks. Pull maintenance visits forward so cases and walk-ins get checked first, and keep extra techs free for emergency calls. Ask the supply houses early about their holiday hours.
What should the morning board show?
Start with overnight calls and where each one stands. Then list the day's repairs, maintenance visits sorted by each store's access window, and return visits waiting on parts. Mark which techs have the right card and tools for racks, ice machines or ammonia sites. Leave room for the emergency calls that come in before noon.
How should a dispatcher plan maintenance for a chain spread across both branches?
Group each chain's stores by area and visit them on one route, so a tech covers a cluster in a day or two. Fit visits to the hours and delivery days each site gives you. Space them so one emergency week doesn't push them all late. Share the schedule with the office manager, who bills by it.
