what is lumper

It's all a big racket that has been going on for a long time. It gets loaded and then you have to pay to get it unloaded, unless of course you want to unload it yourself. I try to avoid grocery loads, because most of those have to be broken down or moved from the pallets on the truck to the pallets at the warehouse or pulled off the floor if not on pallets. A great big pain...but it's just how business gets done in that sector.

 

If it is a brokered load you can always call the broker for the comchek, EFS, etc....assuming it is a big enough broker that is staffed at 0300 when your appt is. Occasionally you can lump it yourself, tell the broker what it would have cost and make said EFS, Comchek out to yourself and pocket the money. Yes, I too, have never understood how it always comes back to the carrier to solve the problem - I mean it's your 40,000lbs sugar, you bought, you paid for it, but somehow I am on the hook so you can have a lumper service charge $180 to unload into your warehouse and pay the guys doing the actual work $40 to unload your freight.

 

Lumpers are a great way for the receiver to not pay the cost of unloading a truck.
They hire an outside company to do the work so they don't have to hire more people and pay insurance and stuff.

It is just a way to transfer costs around the block.

It is more a pain to us drivers, but we don't pay it in the end. Except with a bit of time to get the PO and write the Comcheck.

 

Don't feel bad .... nobody else understands it either. It's just a racket. Organized crime.

 

It's become more "legit" with lumper services with actual tax IDs and such. Not like the good old days when you hired some guy off the street.

 

That's how I broke into trucking, as a freelance lumper working the local truck stop in high school. At times I had to take care to avoid the goons that thought they "owned" the turf. From there I got into bedbugging to start my driving career.

 

That was good cash when you think about it, even after you gave the receiver dock manager his cut.

 

Moosetek don't think for a second WE don't pay it--the shipper may reimburse---but has already added it into the cost of the product---&cut it from the freight rate--so NOT only do we pay it in terms of its effect on the freight rate--We all #### sure pay it at the checkout counter

 

Lumper: the guy that works about 5 hours a day. Is often on public assistance, (welfare, WIC, Foodstamps, etc.) the guy that often pays no income taxes. The guy that if he does pay income taxes surely does not claim his lumping fees. The guy that has the system figured out. Usually not very honest but probably more well-off than you an I.