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Boston Career Explorer

Office and Administrative Support

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance

Schedule and dispatch workers, work crews, equipment, or service vehicles for conveyance of materials, freight, or passengers, or for normal installation, service, or emergency repairs rendered outside the place of business. Duties may include using radio, telephone, or computer to transmit assignments and compiling statistics and reports on work progress.

Also called: Aircraft Dispatcher, Charter Coordinator, City Dispatcher, Dispatcher (Dispatch), Mine Dispatcher, Paratransit Dispatcher

Median pay in Greater Boston
$56,560
$27.19/hr
Jobs in Greater Boston
2,440
Massachusetts 2024–2034
+2.5%
250 openings a year
Typical U.S. entry requirement
High school diploma or equivalent
plus Moderate-term on-the-job training

Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.

Pay range in Greater Boston

Yearly pay in Greater Boston by percentile
10th25thMedian75th90th
$43,750$47,800$56,560$66,670$79,860

10% of workers earn less than the first figure and 10% earn more than the last.

What you’d do

  • Schedule or dispatch workers, work crews, equipment, or service vehicles to appropriate locations, according to customer requests, specifications, or needs, using radios or telephones.
  • Prepare daily work and run schedules.
  • Confer with customers or supervising personnel to address questions, problems, or requests for service or equipment.
  • Relay work orders, messages, or information to or from work crews, supervisors, or field inspectors, using telephones or two-way radios.
  • Receive or prepare work orders.
  • Record and maintain files or records of customer requests, work or services performed, charges, expenses, inventory, or other dispatch information.

AI and this job

AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.

Higher exposure86 of 100

The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:

  • AIOE 82
  • Language-model AIOE 79
  • GPTs-are-GPTs 96

Observed AI use today: Substantial (Anthropic Economic Index)

Dispatching has higher AI exposure, and AI tools are already in substantial use in this work. Tools can help with building daily schedules, preparing work orders, and sending routine assignments, and federal projections say automated dispatch systems may handle simple requests with less input from dispatchers. Talking with customers and supervisors to solve problems and make judgment calls on changing situations still relies on people.

Likely to change

  • Building daily work and run schedules
  • Preparing and relaying routine work orders

Still relies on people

  • Talking through problems with customers and supervisors
  • Judgment calls when crews or plans change

What federal projections say

“Productivity change - share decreases as streamlined and automated dispatch systems process relatively simple transactions with less input from dispatchers.”
BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, factors affecting this job (U.S.)

Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.

Next steps from here

Related jobs that build on what you already do.

  • Public Safety Telecommunicators

    Radio and phone dispatching skills carry over, and so does questioning callers to decide the right response. Pay is a bit higher and growth is faster.

    Pay difference
    +$6,100 median
    AI exposure
    Higher
    MA growth
    +4.1%
    To get started
    High school diploma or equivalent

  • First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers

    Coordinating service crews and work orders carries over to supervising repair and installation workers, a role with higher median pay and moderate AI exposure.

    Pay difference
    +$38,410 median
    AI exposure
    Moderate
    MA growth
    +5.1%
    To get started
    High school diploma or equivalent

  • Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers

    Your freight and crew scheduling experience fits managing shipping and warehouse teams, a role with much higher pay and faster projected growth.

    Pay difference
    +$72,200 median
    AI exposure
    Higher
    MA growth
    +9.9%
    To get started
    High school diploma or equivalent

Training near Boston

College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).

No college programs near Boston map to this job. Many people enter through on-the-job training or apprenticeship.

Talk to a career coach at the Office of Workforce Development about apprenticeships and City partner programs.

Related occupations

Talk to a career coach

A coach at the Office of Workforce Development can help you plan your next step, and connect you with training, apprenticeships and City partner programs that are not listed here.

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