If you don't play the lumper game, you'll get shafted

I work as an independent lumper at a south florida food distributor. The money I charge a driver for an unload is mine. It is my only source of income. Most of our work comes floor loaded. Eighty-five to one hundred pound cases, 500 to 600 each load. I charge my drivers no more than $150 for this. I take care of the load and their bills. Most drivers don't have to leave the comfort of their cabs. I understand in this supply chain drivers have to be in and out in a few hours. Drivers aren't obligated to employ lumpers. If you want to drive all night and then do the additional manual labor when you get to a drop it's your choice. Just please stop calling all of us scum of the earth. Some of us are just hard working people looking to do a good job and take care of our families. No freeloading!!!

 

Someone tell me HOW a company is going to charge you to unload THEIR freight on THEIR dock??????????

Like the other poster said that would be like charging the mail man money for him put MY mail in MY mailbox.



I quess that is why I pull flats and drops there is no way anyone will unload me without a forklift and most of the time a crane.

 

The only food we haul has a pre-paid lumper deal. I go in and give the lumper service my bills and they come get me when they are done.
I still think the entire lumper deal is a scam. You purchased this freight, why am I responsible for getting it off?
It's been going on since I started in 1980 so I guess it will just be the deal for some time to come.

 

Fortunately I work with a co. that will pay me same as dock in most instances. This lumper business is just another form of oppression in my opinion. The service may charge $200 for the load that may take a guy 3-4 hours to break-down...he may see $40 of that. I unload everything that I can....it puts an extra 2 to 4 or $500 a week on my hip. Plus I take advantage of the exercise. A lot of places will let you use their power equipment if you have the proper documentation (forklift/pallet-jack license, 1 or 2 Million in liability insurance). I used to carry a small electric jack but got tired of going through the legal ramifications of them not allowing me to use my equipment as a vendor to get the buyers load off of the truck (which is the burden of the "vendor" Read trucking co.) So now I keep a high quality pallet jack of my own on the truck. I miss no opportunity to keep food on my table. I really feel for guys that want to unload but are DISCRIMINATED against by the large carriers....paying the driver a pittance compared to what they willingly pay these lumping services. It really doesn't have to be like this...but as long as we continue to be bleating sheep...we will continue to be slaughtered....

 

I've been dealing with lumpers since the mid 70's. It used to be in the real OLD days the driver or owner of the truck BOUGHT the load or freight and sold it to a grocery store or whatever and had to unload HIS freight himself. People who needed a little cash to feed their families or buy a bottle hung around and helped lump the load for a few dollars. OR one driver helped another to unload their freight and went to have a beer or two before heading out to get another load. On one of my last loads before my newest advenature a younger kid was having problems breaking down his freight as he was a local and the rules are a little different for line haul and LTL delivery guys. I went over and helped and showed him an easier way to break down his pallets. He couldn't believe I would help another out like that and tried to give me a few bucks which is a NYC habit and tradition which I took but went to the Coke machine and bought us sodas came back and handed him the change from the five spot he had handed me and told him to pass the favor on to another guy who needed it. I hope that one favor is still being handed down between drivers!

Then came companies and about the same thing happened. It WAS the trucking companies freight, then things evolved and stores became chains and the warehouse did the buying but the drivers still had to "lump" the freight and the hangers around would ask if the driver needed help lumping the load for more money.

Then the worst happened. Lumpers got smart and "took over" some docks by actually getting unionized or run by, yep the "Mob!" And then the smelly stuff hit the fan! Lumpers became a profession all over. Not all of them were members of a union but as "gangs" on the street corners they bartered for the freight with the driver and usually the "lowest" price got the load. I've sat in the truck and watched some really nasty fights break out when someone under bid another! These days you do not see lumpers on the street corners or running to be the first on the step! Wonder why??

Now a days things actually have turned towards the better. Yes they have!
I've done work as a broker agent. I know now that most freight mainly in the food side, the lumper service cost is in the cost of the freight rate! The receiver knows that such and such a load will cost about x dollars and the shipper pays this amount in the rate.

Now there is a federal law that states that no one can force a driver into paying a lumper or into unloading the freight. I do not have the link or find the copy in my files but it's there.

When you get some where and they say lumper, then it's on the company to pay it NOT YOU! Unless you're an O/O then you already know that x dollars of the rate is the lumper fee and I made sure my drivers knew that point and they did! The same for you in that fleece deal! I would NOT sign the fleece contract until I saw the lumper pay paragraph and understood it fully! I wouldn't sign the lease anyway as I've seen the BS that goes along with them but that's been beaten to death by me and others in other threads! If you're an O/O who leased on with someone you know to ask or read the lumper provision.

UNLESS you have signed some paper that says you will unload for x dollars or x dollars an hour, then you're screwed! This is one very important question you need to ask before you even jump on that bus to go drive for XYC company! DO you pay lumper costs or how much do you pay to unload?

I do NOT lump loads unless I'm paid extremely well for the work! BUT your company already knows what the lumper charge is going to be and when you call or send the cost into them you should get an authorization back and a check code to give them and they ALL take checks now! I know that my last company had the charge in the broker sheet and it showed up in the dispatchers page for when you send in that lumper pay request macro they see it and it's sent to you. The days of bartering the price is long gone! Even Walmart loads BUT that is a good money to pay as it ALL goes to The Childrens network and NO WalMart keeps NONE of it! You'll find it in their yearly "show and tell" to the stock holders and it actually a thing they point at with pride! Yes I worked right after I came off the road for WalMart in the meat department until I got over this medical trip I've been on and I was impressed at how much the unloading costs paid to TCMN! You guys and gals should not complain about that actual palty price WalMart charges for unloading and be proud of the help you gave TCMN!!

I've seen in here where drivers are "forced" to get a lumper and if this has happened in the last 10 I'll throw it on the floor now, BULL! It is NOT a surprise to anyone about lumpers and not your company as they knew they were going to be at this stop unless they are completely brain dead! Now if BFI refuses to pay the lumper fee and they want you to do it for an embarrassing amount I'd pull one pallet off with that floor jack as NO you will NOT use their power jacks and scream bad back and watch all kinds of people come out of the woodwork! And the QC or phone!
You're in it to make money, don't unload for free or anything less that what you feel your time is worth!

Another thing companies are not allowing is the "old" way of passing a receipt book around the dinner counter and getting a bunch or drivers to sign and make up social security numbers! It's either a printed receipt or you're SOL! Now my dedicated NYC load I had a form I filled out that had the PO#, the case count and the amount multiplied by the ten cents a case and the total and I was good to go! I made a killing on those multi drop paid by the dock and case count and the " NYC hazard pay!" Wish I could go back to my route!

As to the story somewhere above where the dispatcher threatened the dock foreman with the US Marshalls. Please pick my old arse up off the floor from LMFAO! It will not happen! EVER!

The Marshalls service has nothing to do with shippers, receivers, lumpers, police or DOT or trucking in general!

Their job is to protect the Federal Court System, the Judges and people who work for the judicial and they do have a top 10 Wanted List and they arrest people and yes they do impound trucks as in Arrow or old CTI when they filed bankruptcy and then they go in and collect all the trucks, trailers of the company and that's as close as the come to having anything to do with trucking! Well they do handle prisoner transfers and have a fleet of busses for that and they also lease out the job too! Then there are the "armed" trucks you see with the SUV's with the K40 CB antennas that no one in their right mind woould mess with!

Yeah, she might have gotten away with it with that dock foreman as he didn't know any better but if he had called her bluff, then she would have been able to do nothing but have you haul her companies freight which it still was if still on the trailer and hasn't been signed for! Untill they sign for the freight it's still the company who hauled its property!

I'll put it this way. Lumpers will be here forever! The cost of paying them the cost of insuring them is on the "lumpers company" The warehouse has gotten rid of the risk of having a trucker on the dockgetting hurt. It's a way of life until shippers are able to pack freight to the receivers specifications such as small wood and a tie high they can use but you know that'll never happen like with a full Campbell's Soup load! 5000 cases all in 1-3-5-10-15-20 case counts on 28 pallets? Yeah I'll never live long enough to see Kroger, Albersons or whoever order in full pallet amounts and change their racking system to take standard pallet sizes! At least the companies pay it, you write the check for it and if BFI tries to stick you for the money it's flat tire or new windshield time!

Hope this helped to open a few facts about the skurge of trucking! LOL