Drivers don't like to unload, sure. I know I sure hated touching freight. After my first six months, I adopted a no-compromise stance: I don't load, and I don't unload. That stood well. Company insiders understood that.

During my learning phase, I was the one who lacked 'understanding' on how the 'lumper game' is played. It didn't take long for me to learn what's up at the docks.

When a driver hits a dock at, say, a Smith's grocery warehouse, he'll see a sign that reads "This is a driver unload facility." But he'll also see plenty of guys outside the place milling about. These are the lumpers, the guys the driver can hire to unload the goodies instead. Most drivers will hire lumpers, and are even encouraged to hire lumpers by both companies and docks.

The docks are sneaky about this "lumper game". Sometimes docks will even 'force' drivers to use lumpers. Oh they won't come out and say "You MUST use a lumper", they'll just screw with you to convince you the best way is the lumper way. This is because they have a hidden interest in making sure you use a lumper. Read on.

I tried to unload a few loads when I was green. Every time I did, I was driving reefer and delivering to a dreaded grocery warehouse. And every time I did, I was 'forced' to use a 'sweat jack', a manual pallet jack. Anyone who has used one of these knows how much a pain in the ### it is. I was "forbidden" to use electric jacks. This would have made unloading much easier. But these docks didn't want me to have an "easy" time. They wanted me to have have a hard time. They wanted me get frustrated and hire a lumper. And yes, lumpers WERE allowed to use electric jacks even though they weren't really dock employees.

Why would the dock want me to hire a lumper? That's an easy question to answer: The dock gets a cut of the lumper fee. When a driver pays a lumper 200 bucks to unload a trailer in four hours, the lumper probably pays 100 bucks or more to the dock. If I unloaded loads myself, the dock didn't get this "kickback". They thus had the incentive to screw with me to make sure I played the lumper game.

My companies encouraged me to get lumpers as well, as I said. This took the form of them paying me, the driver, only 75 bucks to unload a trailer that would have cost the company 200 bucks to pay a lumper to do it. What if I preferred getting the 200 instead and protested to my companies? They gave me the stock answer: I couldn't because I was the driver. And drivers got paid a flat rate on unloading, usually 1/2 to 1/3 what the lumper charged. It was clear which way they wanted me to go--the lumper game.

So. I unloaded the loads at these places and got shafted by the docks on the pallet jacks. I also got shafted by my companies who'd pay me at most 40% of what they were willing to pay a lumper to do the same job.

This aggravated me and made me adopt my "no-compromise" stance of no loading/no unloading, which was just fine and dandy with the companies I worked for.

Yeah, I played the lumper game after I got wise. I paid the 200 to get the trailer unloaded and went to bed.

PS--Another tactic the docks use to "convince" you to play the lumper game is making you wait for hours to unload if you want to unload a load yourself.

You WILL play the game so the dock can get its kickback or you will pay the price.

Don't forget the sort-and-segregate. Grocery warehouses require that too. Last one of those I did was 10 skids that turned into 18 and took 5 hours total.

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Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

So what? Paying a lumper never cost me a dime out of pocket. If the company's willing to pay a lumper the fees they're charging, that's between them. I'd rather use the two to ten hours they're unloading me to get some shut-eye. I drove for companies that had lumper accounts at any large warehouses they delivered, so all I had to do was sign a blank comcheck, sign a list, be very courteous to the lumper's manager, and ask them for a wake up call. A lot of drivers used to make getting a wake up call very easy for me by acting like a total jerk to a guy who's only trying to do his job. It was very easy for me to be the next guy behind him and side with the guy doing the receipts and play the "good cop". I'd be like, "What a jerk. I could see if it was him paying it, but more than likely, his company's paying for it and it's not costing him a dime. Dude, some of us understand. I've got a four hour drive after this and don't wanna be stressing in my sleeper berth over what the company's doing with their finances, you dig? ...You know approximately how long you guys'll be unloading me?", he'd answer. No matter what he'd answer, I'd be like, " Excellent. Can you wake me when you're done please? Just have someone bang on my door.I'll probably be out cold. I just had to drive ten hours straight to make this appointment." Everytime I went after the jerkoff, they'd agree to giving me a wake up call. I'd crawl in my sleeper, and when they were done doing their job, they'd send someone to my door, bills of lading in hand, and send me on my merry way to do my job, well rested and ready to go.
If the company's paying $100 and someone's getting a kickback, that's none of my business. I was a truck driver, not a financial adviser. And say I was willing to underbid a lumper, then what the hell did I get a CDL for!? If I wanted to work a laborious job, I wouldn't have invested the time and money into a job that pays you to sit on your ### for ten hours at a time, and then to crawl into a bed two feet away. No wonder I got fat!
My point is, we shouldn't worry about saving saving money for a company that doesn't give a crap about us.

JohnnyB, That was exactly my attitude after I got wise.

i once had a co-worker who would *fake* a lumpers name, and etc's to a lumper form, then take the cash for himself, and it was always the standard $150.00 *back then*

i told him he shouldn't do this, but he was money hungry *he did more things than just forge lumper forms*, and he didn't care, as his philosophy was, why should someone else get the money.........

i too hated it when the company pay's for a lumper whatever they wanted, but paid us only $1.00 per thousand pounds. so, if the load weighed 40,000 pounds, i would only get $40.

but the lumpers got up to the $150.00 they were asking for, again, *back then*. needless to say, i paid them their fee, and i either slept or watched tv. i wasn't going to break my back unloading cases of cigarettes for a lousy $40, and that's for the whole trailer.........

When I was leased to Landstar; the ONLY loads I took that required "fingerprinting" were multiple stops originating in either Grants Pass or Hillsboro Oregon. They paid $60 per stop for "tailgating". Consisted of 15 to 25 stops per load, mostly at Menards and Home Depot. $900 to $1500 for (no more than) two days unloading, plus miles made it worth the while. All other freight was "no-touch" as far as I was concerned. And Landstar stood behind me if the load was listed as such.

Why would anyone not be smart enough to fill out their own lumper receipt, I always did or had another driver write it for me. This was standard practice back in the day, unload, go to the truckstop and fill out each others receipt. Why would you sweat for 40-60 dollars when 120 feels alot better. Then I really woke up and refused to load or unload going as far as to drop a trailer at a dock and leave. When dispatch finally sent me back the trailer was loaded. I pull reefer so once in awhile I have to run an elect. pallet jack, but believe me that's it.

Another scam I've heard of involves drivers telling their companies lumpers were charging more than what they were. Sometimes a LOT more. A driver doing this would get a quote from a lumper, add a certain percentage, and tell his company the new total. When the driver handed the c-check to the lumper, he got change and put that in his pocket.

I was always honest with my companies. When I told them a lumper wanted a certain amount, that is what was truly being charged. Most of these companies later ripped me one way or another, so maybe I shouldn't have been so honest in these cases. Perhaps I should have played this game, too.

I've been lucky so far and have only delivered to one place that had a "lumper" only policy. So I called my dispatch and told them they were'nt going to let me unload, unless I paid for a lumper. CASH....unfournately they got one option and only one from my dispatch, actualy three. I unload it in there dock, or in the parking lot. Or we charged them extra for delivery and wait time. Or I sent it back. Needless to say, they had me unload the one pallet.
As for Union docks, I've had a few of them, and I let them unload my freight, and most of them do it quickly.
But pay to deliver someones freight, I don't think so. That would be like me charging the mail carrier money to put my own mail in the mail box. Just aint going to happen.

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Be safe and God Speed,
Reverend Matthew "The Dragon" Koscielski
!!!Proud to be a gear grinder!!!

Faith, Hope, Love. The Greatest is Love 1 Corinthians 13:13

Can anyone tell me what the middle peddle in my truck does, cause i never use it.

Nope Tip, you were smart, even if you got hosed in the end. Those guys adding a % to the lumper fees, I don't see how that would work, because anytime I had a lumper unload, I had to have a receipt that MATCHED the amount I told my crappy company it would be. Or the extra would come out of my pocket.