Dispatch is a procedure for assigning employees (workers) or vehicles to customers. Industries that dispatch include taxicabs, couriers, emergency services, as well as home and commercial services such as maid services, plumbing, HVAC, pest control and electricians.

With vehicle dispatching, clients are matched to vehicles according to the order in which clients called and the proximity of vehicles to each client's pick-up location. Telephone operators take calls from clients, then either enter the client's information into a computer or write it down and give it to a dispatcher. In some cases, calls may be assigned a priority by the call-taker. Priority calls may jump the queue of pending calls. In the first scenario, a central computer then communicates with the mobile data terminal located in each vehicle (see computer assisted dispatch); in the second, the dispatcher communicates with the driver of each vehicle via two-way radio.

With home or commercial service dispatching, customers usually schedule services in advance and the dispatching occurs the morning of the scheduled service. Depending on the type of service, workers are dispatched individually or in teams of two or more. Dispatchers have to coordinate worker availability, skill, travel time and availability of parts. The skills required of a dispatcher are greatly enhanced with the use of computer dispatching software (see computer aided call handling).

The following are examples of manual systems used to track the status of resources in a dispatched fleet.

Card systems employ a set of shelves with a slot for each unit in the dispatch fleet. Each vehicle or resource has a slot in the shelving system. In it, a card, like a time card used to track an employee's work hours, is stored. A time clock, similar to the one that stamps work hours on a time card, is used to stamp event times on each card. At the beginning of a work day, the resource's identifier or other information is handwritten on the card. Each time the resource's status changes, the card is punched in the time clock and a new status entry is handwritten on the card. The card collects a series of entries through the work shift.

In a tow truck example, the card might be labeled with the tow car's radio identifier, "Downtown 6" and may be labeled with the vehicle number or data about the capabilities of the specific tow car. It might give a weight capacity, show the unit as a flat bed or cradle snatcher, or mention the unit carries a can of Diesel fuel. The name of the staff on the car might be noted. At the start of a shift, the dispatcher would note the unit "available" and time stamp the card. At the assignment to a call, the call information would be written on the card and the card might be stamped at the moment the assignment is read to the tow car crew. The string of notes and time stamps allows dispatch staff to get a clear picture of the status of a small fleet.

Some systems use shelving with red and green lights and a switch at the back of the card slot. If the resource's card is pushed all the way into the card slot, the switch is actuated and an indicator lamp turns red. This identifies the tow car whose card occupies that slot as not available, or assigned to a call. Leaving the card pulled partway out leaves the indicator green, showing the dispatcher that unit is available. Is anyone available? The lights are supposed to give the dispatch staff a snapshot of their resource situation.

A major flaw of this system is that cards are inside shelves and trying to look at an entire set of cards to evaluate the overall situation requires the dispatcher to pull out every card, one at a time, and read it. If two or more resources are sent to the same call, the dispatcher has a lot of writing to do.