despatcher

Despatcher (British English spelling of dispatcher) is a person or system responsible for coordinating the sending of goods, information, or people. The term is used in several domains and often appears as 'despatcher' in British usage and 'dispatcher' in American usage.

In logistics and supply chain management, a despatcher plans and executes the movement of shipments from warehouses to customers. Duties typically include routing and scheduling transportation, assigning drivers or carriers, coordinating pickups and deliveries, tracking progress, handling delays or exceptions, and maintaining records for compliance and customer service. Despatchers work in distribution centers, freight forwarders, parcel couriers, and manufacturing operations.

In computing, a despatcher or dispatcher is a software component or process that delivers work items or messages to appropriate handlers or threads. This can be found in event-driven architectures, thread pools, inter-process communication systems, or message brokers. The goal is to decouple producers of work from consumers and to enable scalable, asynchronous processing.

In railway and public transport operations, a despatcher may be the person or team responsible for authorizing train movements within a control area, issuing movement authorities, and coordinating with signals, yard staff, and other controllers to ensure safe and efficient service. The role is closely related to the dispatcher concept and terminology varies by country and organization.

Despatcher derives from the verb despatch (send off). The spelling despatcher is common in British English, while dispatcher is more common in American English; both terms denote the same basic role across contexts.