The real truth about lumper fees.

I got hurt (tore my ACL) several years ago on a shipper's dock when I was required to load the truck. WC was denied, I had to use my own medical insurance to pay the medical bills and I still need surgery.
It didn't matter that it was ILLEGAL COERCION to force me there in the first place (load or get fired).

 

wow if u could have been there on my first experience.

I used to work at publix as a meat cutter. so i had to unload the trucks when they came in and work them.

so I get to the first place that requires a unload fee. and it's was going to be like 285.00 so i said I can do that. and they looked at me and said i can only use a hand jack. i lol and said thats all i eaver used. then they said u know how to break it down ? I said excuse me ? they said ya break it down. I lol again and said u ordered the product u knew it was coming and i delivered it. now i know it's not delivered till it's on the dock in acceptable condition. but theres no way in hell i'm going to work ur truck to. they told me that yes they ordered the product but they ordered it in cretin amounts. like 53 pallets but there was 18 on the trailer. they said the fee was to break it down like they ordered it. boy I'll tell u what I about rolled on the floor and said i'll tell u what if cre pays the lumper fee i'll bring u in a com check. but if they don't....well I'll get back to u on that. so I went back out to my truck and sent for an express code and ar number. it came back no problem. so i paid it. and made a promise to myself never to touch freight. I have no problem pulling pallets off the trailer, but I'll be danged if I'm going to work there truck for them.

 

I worked for a contractor here in Wa. a few years back at Bullet Freight; anyhow one day I had to make a drop at West Coast Paper in Kent. I get there and pull up outside (not blocking any other trucks by the way) and I go inside and show the girl I have 2 small pallets for them with a total of 20 pcs. and asked which door she wanted me at; she tells me a door number and then if I could take the two pallets off the truck that'd be appreciated; so I do this then find the actual recieving guy and just as I hand him the bill (before I told him I took the pallets off the truck) he looks at me and starts calling me a "stupid truck driver" and all kinds of foul mouthed names. Anyhow at first I just sort of laughed then as he kept it up, he really made me mad and I looked at him and told him if he wanted to keep talking that way to me I could just dump the stuff in their parking lot and they'd have to pick it up or I'd just not deliver it and put on the bill "refused" and I told him that I wasn't the idiot who ordered the stuff and I could care less if it got delivered or not and I got paid either way. Well, his attitude changed really quick like towards me and never happened again when I went there the second time.

The nerve of some of these recievers just makes me wonder how hard their job really is compared to driving a big rig.

 

That's the big thing for me too. I would have zero problem rolling pallets from the truck using just a hand jack, but I won't so much as tear that plastic wrap for them after that.

 

If I am told that I must use their lumper service my reply is : If I cant unload my own freight you aint getting it. if they need the product they budge if not,call the shipper. they will take action.

 

i have been on both sides.i was shipping receiving supervisor for a plant and have drove for 12 years.i assure you that a few of the drivers play a big part in the way we are treated.i did my lil supervisor gig after about 6 years of driving so i knew all about trucking.on more than 1 occasion i sent drivers away and called their company and told them send a different driver or i will give the load to someone else.some drivers have a you owe me attitude because i am hauling your freight.wrong as drivers we owe them as much as they owe us.granted some shippers are just jerks no excuse for some of them.i guarantee you for it to have been bad enough for me to have sent them 3 or 4 drivers away like i did alot of places would have just fired the company.my boss even tried to get me to fire the company over 1 of them and i told him no that that was just 1 driver not the company.but he had a bad attitude towards everyone at that company after that run in with that 1 driver.

 

Drivers charge your company the 2 or 300 dollars and unload the truck. You can make better money unloading and sending in reciepts than driving stop to stop. Besides who care about lumper fees, your company adds a margin amount for it when they bid the load, the reciever ends up paying the lumper fee. If your company does not cover it then your companys is screwing you not the reciever. Reverse the rolls take your time and keep the money.

 

wow so u actually enjoy log book falsification? that's a $500.00 fine and a second degree misdemeanor in California.
if you are unloading freight.....then you are working and that burns your 70

o and btw let me get this straight....if i make a decision to not unload my truck myself, and to go to my truck and relax maybe watch some tv, read a book or heck do some house cleaning. then I am now considered lazy? is this what u are trying to say?
then let me ask u this...if another driver tells u that he will pay u to unload his truck. would u do it? and if not can we say that u are lazy because u chose not to do work whitch u would have gotten paid to do?

 

yeah and thats why it didn't surprise me when i decided to unload my whole truck load of apples once and a Dock in Elizabeth NJ after pulling my off the dock for being late cause i was wedged in between other trucks they finally got me on a dock like 3 hrs later so i start unloading the truck on my own basically restacking all the boxes cause they'd moved all over the place from Wanachee WA to Elizabeth NJ anyways the guys in the office come over when i'd basically finished and say we'll have to ask you to leave see cause they weren't getting no kick backs all of the money stayed with me so anyways i charmed them with me aussie accent i think that was the only way i got off the hook don't think it would've worked a second time though Huh!

regards aussiejosh