Is there anyone out there that can assist me with finding away around this frustrating and annoying habit. I usually take a few hours at the end of the month to plan extensively when, where and what kind of shops I will request. I will request shops on the 24th of the previous month for the 1st-8th days of the next month. I do this because I travel and am often able to position myself in certain areas through out the month. Is seems to be habitual that I will receive a notice 3-4 days before the date that I requested, that I have been assigned the shop.

By this time I have rearranged my schedule based on their lack of replying in a timely manner.

Is there anyone that can assist me with this dilemma?

I would do two things: About one or two business days after making the request, I would send the schedulers a nice email letting them know that you are planning a route and need to know - one way or another - whether or not you are going to be assigned the shop.

At the point in time when you are actually re-arranging your schedule, simply delete the shop request. Schedulers fully understand that you cannot wait forever for an answer and that not assigning a shop to you right away means that you might find other options and become unavailable.