Lumpers - are they needed

The independent lumper you hate so much is a dying breed. He's most likely to be a hard working person making minimum wage...in some cases less than minimum wage when paid per load. The lumper company he works for is where you should focus your hatred since you are 100% correct about it being a scam. I feel sorry for lumpers. They don't need me making their lives harder than they already are.

 

There is no difference if they take the freight off the floor to the racks than from the trucks to the racks.

It is nothing but a scheme that one thinks they are getting over on the other.

You pay us to unload.
We turn around and bill the shipper.
The shipper charges a higher cost to compensate the difference.

It reminds of a 3 stooges skit and each owned each other a $1. They fought and then they passed the bill around in a circle and they were all happy after they paid each other back.

What gets me is we have to pay for restacking. Well, order your freight right or buy the right racks. It's absurd they expect the drivers to pay for that.

 

Lumpers are nothing but a big circle jerk on the gov't. We pay the lumper and take it off our taxes. The company we run for pays us and takes it off their taxes. The shipper pays the carrier and takes it off taxes. The receiver pays the shipper and takes it off taxes. Eventually, it does get back to the receiver to pay...either in higher shipping cost or in direct billing. We are merely caught in the middle of the game.

In some places, you're forced to hire the leaches $60 to remove a single pallet of ice cream from your trailer because if you do it yourself, you will have to unload each carton by hand and you only have half an hour to do it. You will not be allowed to use either a hand pallet jack or get another pallet to restack on.

It's nothing but a racket.

 

i like how you have to hire a lumper if you get searched by canadian customs. $450 for a full load, palletized.

 

Please explain.

 

You got to the Safeway distribution center in Tracy Ca. you have no choice to hire the lumpers, generally costs 59 bucks, and i know they are a lumpers union that works the docks there.

 

We dont use lumpers this side of the pond. I dont understand why you have to pay to unload goods they ordered and want asap.

Isn't that extortion ...thought it would be illegal ?

 

Your not even a driver yet, Get real. Lumpers are paid in the end by the receiver it's included in the bid process. Lumper fees are included in the bill to the shipper or reciever, If you as a driver are not getting reinbursed then your working for the wrong company. Beside once you learn how to work the system you can make better money unloading the truck than driving it. I have always unloaded my own loads, then billed the company I worked for a lumper fee (and I dont mean 45 dollars either) You have to figure it out.

 

Don't some of these companies have policies where you can't bill to unload? Doesn't that cut into your "on duty" hos?
Is this more of an O/O thing?
I could see you being able to unload the load as an O/O, but not a company driver.

 

A lot of companies will reimburse you the cost of unloading, and allow you to take what the lumpers would charge... a nice chunk of cash in some places. Downside: A lot of folks hurt themselves doing this, is it worth it if you mess yourself up to the point you can't get a medical card? My company used to allow this, but got tired of paying the workman's comp claims. They have no problem paying the lumpers, but will only pay us 10 cents per case now - just to keep us off of the docks.