When I first went from being a Load Controller/Dispatcher doing my own loadsheets at a/c side, to working with a central load planning department, I was very against it too.
However, now I have been working the latter way for a number of years, I have almost been swung to thinking it is much better.
It certainly adds an extra level of safety into the system. Before if when doing your own loadsheets, if you made a mistake on the l/s, nobody would be aware of it, but now if CLC make a mistake (and c'mon lets face it, while ever us humans are involved we will always make mistakes), then at least the Dispatcher/TCO/TRM should pick up on it when they check through the load sheet which means the mistake can be rectified before the a/c departs.
The only thing I don't like is that it is much more time consuming to get a load plan changed when you need to explain to the CLC bod what you need doing, then wait for them to do it and send you the new L/P. Oh and at my lot, the load planners have hardly even seen an a/c, let alone dispatched one !!. They do some very strange things with the trims, especially when the holds are not going to be full !!.
