When working with a Large towing company in Canada I was part of driver team that acted as "technical liason" to the IT department and outsourced software sales people when asked for input we recognized that when a human dispatches during poor weather ETA's are generally lengthened. However, when a computer dispatches they should be shortened.
A computer looks at the city in blocks each block represented by a corresponding time frame so ... each block (maybe 4 square KM"s) equals 5 mins travel lets say. So when the computer receives a call and the eta is set to 45 min then any truck within 36 square KM's is fare game to receive the call, which in fine weather depending on traffic may or may not be acceptable. But, in a blizzard 36 KM's is a great distance to travel for a call considering you'll certainly be driving past 100's of stranded motorists on the way. Management decided to ignore us and during the first "Red Alert" realized the error of their ways and had to revert to old faithful...A Radio! instead of (Not so) Smart Spot computerized dispatching.
You know that makes alot of sense to me because i had that same problem with the dispatchers up las vegas,nv.they would send calls via computer to your pager and i wouldn't get my complete call ! we have a person who has her company posted here in itow who claims she can dispatch from north carolina its in advertising forum for towing companies! 
:thumb:towing related services forum!
I would not want my calls dispatched any other way then over the phone this way you know if there is a error most of the conversations are recordeed they ca look it up because most of the errors come from their call takers and they are all as dumb as a box of rocks . 
I agree with it also because with the way weather,phone lines,and internet technology is something is bound to screw up and then its asta la vista baby in the eyes of law rotations,i would rather take the call myself!
Every means of dispatch have their problems, ME I take all calls no matter what, and when there is an errror, I am to blame and accept it. When my office usta take the calls they wouldn't get all the info and there would problems/errors in the dispatch or so screwed up that I really didn't want to show up on scene on some of the calls. 
You know my error ratio has gone done so much that I hope and prey that my cell phone provider doesn't take the big dodo on me in the future. 
I have even lost some calls, when my office tells them they have to call another #, the customer gets upset-OH WELL, probably didn't want to do their call anyway? 
In the evenings the main number is forwarded to the cell and it has worked pretty well these past 4 yrs, there has been times that the cell indicated a missed call, but not that often, and if I have connection problems I can always jump on a land-line and get the call taken care of in a short period of time.
Sure wish they would get a cell-type phone that worked in all areas, because my rural areas have such crumbie service I loose some calls there too, but these are the down fall of doing it yourself all the time, but most of my calls don't get misquoted or one of the guys at the office blow the customer off totally and ignore (put on hold) them for too long, when I handle the call. Old saying-if ya want it done right-DO IT YURSELF!!!!!!!!!! GetRDun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just wanted to add a reply, I seem to be getting the impression that you may feel that my services in a fake and just not possible. I have a Comment that I dispatch for in California and who has refered me tow many companies. My company is not like most, What you pay for is what you get when you choose to have an answering service answer your calls for you. They have no knowledge and go out of there way to provide you with the worst possible service. Yes some prefer to answer there own phones to be sure that they are getting there calls and there is no problem with that, then there are those who are looking for that little bit of family time there wife is yelling at them for. I don't claim to beable to do it. I am doing it. I not only dispatch by phone, but also by nextel. for those who have questions and have nextel access que me up151*16477*33
I don't think anyone here is under the impression your services are fake i just think a lot of people don't have it in them to leave their company in the hands of complete strangers and risk losing accounts or business. people have a lot to lose these day's and all it takes is one error and thats it you lose a 5000 account and to assure they don't have problems they choose to do it themselves. i know if iscrew up a account it is on my but if some one else is to make a error and it cost me a account i would be super pissed off. now dont get me wrong i'm in no way saying your comapny would be making mistakes but myself and most the others would not like to take the chance.