Paid more for unloading my truck than driving it?

S.O.P in the refer biz. Unreasonable lumper charges. Very common.

 

We get paid a flat $5/pallet to touch, tailgate, break down, or take it off the truck. Some stops let us use their electric stuff, some make us use hand jacks only, and some (Sysco in Warners, NY!!) force us to hire lumpers. On average, most of us make an extra $200-$600/week and get out faster than the guys hiring lumpers. Oh, and no damaged freight claims caused by numbskull lumpers tearing stuff up and blaming someone else.

We do alright, but we'd really be killing it if we got to bill what the lumpers charge!

 

Ugh!! What a sore subject. Had a load last week that the lumpers made half of what I made for driving 1200 miles for their 20 minutes of unloading. After owning my own business for 27 years, I about had a cow when they told me what they were charging. Then I had to remember it wasn't my money.

But it still pissed me off.

 

I made anywhere from $100.00 - $500.00 a week unloading my own loads & keeping the lumper money; then get a pallet exchange and sell the pallets for another $80.00 to $120.00 per load. The company didn't care; said that wasn't even on their list of priorities.

 

The Bashas grocery warehouse in Chandler Az got me good. Three years ago I was stuck in Seattle so I brought a LTL of fish back to get me home for Christmas, I just wanted fuel money. 5 pallets, less than 10,000 pounds. I got to Bashas and the warehouse manager tells me I have a choice, I can break every pallet down and unload by hand, restacking the pallets on their floor or I can pay them their usual "holiday shift pay" (December 24th) of $400. But under NO circumstances would he allow me to use their pallet jack or forklift. I didnt have my own so rather than spend 8 hours on Christmas eve unloading my trailer, I paid.

$900 LTL pay and spent hours waiting for a door on both ends, ran continuous (deep freeze), paid half that money for a lumper to spend 5 minutes unloading me.
Lumper fees are just another way to kill the O/O because warehouse managers know they cant take advantage of Knight, Prime, etc...

 

Lumpers,don't get me started on those crooked lumpers.They have to be making good money concidering how many trks some of these businesses have dailey.Alot of grocery warehouses are a mess to get in and out of as well as backing.Can you imagine what the lumper business is making a day.Not to mention sitting for hrs before your dock is even touched.

 

Lumping is actually a good business to get into if you can find a dock. Many are crooked. A dock can't force you to hire a lumper but many will play games with you like pay or we'll refuse the load.

I use to get upset with a few but it's not worth it. The money goes in a circle and finally passed on to the consumer. The carrier will bill back the shipper who hides it in the shipping cost passed on to the customer which passes it on to the consumer.

It reminds me of a Three Stooges skit I've seen. Curly owed Moe a dollar. Moe owed Larry a dollar. Larry owed Curly a dollar. They all fought until Curly pulled out a dollar, handed it to Moe, Moe then handed it to Larry and then Larry handed it to Curly and then they were all happy.

Here's a little tidbit from the regulations.

So if a dock forces you, you can slap that in their face. It's easier to crawl in the sleeper and catch up on some z's.