Lumpers - are they needed

I had a BOL got lost once when I worked at CRST. They screwed up a lot of checks but i had no way to do anything about it, cause i had no access to payroll info on the road and by the time i got home i forgot about most of the reimbursements....

As for that BOL, i got a very polite call from my dispatcher asking if i had the bol, saying they never got it. He flat out told me that if i didnt find it and send it in, they couldnt get paid for the load. I searched my truck up and down didnt find it. told him i definitely sent it in. Never heard anything about it, im assuming they never got paid. heh.

As for werner, im going to talk to my dispatcher about some $350 in reimbursements that havent been paid to me. I dont keep track of things like scale receipts, but im not going to complain about $10 or $5. But these are like...
Roach motel for a night because i was OTR in a daycab, $58. I was very entertained by the fact that the owner literally worked 24/7 at the front desk. I remember when i was checking in, i went to my truck for something and he said "please hurry, i'd like to go back to sleep" (extremely politely), And i thought my job was bad....

this one realllly burns me: $65 in fuel additives that i am required to use if the temps fall below 20F (i used it all but i have since got some from the company shops, if i dont get reimbursed i will take 6 bottles home and store them in my garage for if im an owner op....its MINE until im reimbursed for it)

$40 for a van strap because a hot load required two, i had one, got to the shipper and the load had never been booked

$10 for bolt seals
$10 CAD for faxes

$100 for my passport but thats something i wanted anyway

....i love my job.



They were all approved on the qualcomm....

 

Bummer. Never have that problem at Prime as long as I have a receipt.

Speaking of which... save your receipts and put them on your taxes as deductions. At least you get something like 30-cents on the dollar for unreimbursed expenses that way.

 

its a deduction, therefore you get to not pay taxes on the money you spent on it. so it probably is 30 cents on the dollar.

however, i plan to file enough deductions to be tax exempt this year...

 

To be fair, it is extremely rare I've had a problem getting paid for expenses. I probably shouldn't complain about that part of the equation. But, I do and will continue saving paperwork since it's saved me some money in the past when the paperwork did go missing on the other end.

 

What receipts are we talking about? When as a self employed flooring guy 100% of the money I put into my van tank was deductable. Tools and supplies, 100%. Wages paid out, 100%.

Insurance, vehicle, worker comp, general liability? 100%


Interest on my house payments IIRC is 80%. I was also allowed home office deduction. 80% of that is deductable.

I know a good tax man.

 

Downside: Unreimbursed costs may be deducted lowering your AGI... all that does is change your tax liability. It's not a 1-for-1 reimbursement for those costs.

Upside: At least you're getting something back.

 

LUMPER'S are NOT NEEDED!!!!!! The Grocery and Produce warehouse's are too cheap to hire real employee's to do the work. It would hurt their bottom line.

 

I've kinda gotten to the point where I can except lumpers, and I really haven't had any problems.

If I ever did though, I'd just start to unhook the tractor. If they gave me any greif I'd just tell them, "I get paid to deliver, it's here, the rest is your problem."

 

I really don't get the Walmart lumper fee of $50. I don't deliver to them anymore and have not for many years, thank God. As a matter of fact I run Foster Farms dedicated and have no lumper fees anymore unless I am trying to get home and have to deliver to some food warehouse out of my main route just to get there and they charge me something... But I have friends that work at these DC's and they load and unload the trucks there. They are all Walmart hourly employee's not independents or so called lumpers. I guess Walmart just banks the $50 to unload their product.