***the Lumper Scam***

then who gets the check. Sorry for asking so many questions Just trying to learn this.

 

Most warehouses have a central location to get your bills and pay the lumper.

Mark

 

so the check goes there? I wouldn't even touch the check.

 

They check goes to who they tell you to make the check out to. I have never had a problem giving money to lumper.

Mark

 

If you use a lumper and you already have another load assignment waiting... you better keep an eye on the lumper and make sure they are not milking it. Also make sure they don't steal anything !! A lot of these clowns are thieves and outright lazy. Can wind up taking 6 hours or more to unload if you hire the wrong one. I wouldn't put any fictitious names on anything because if they find out you'll be looking for another job, let alone another lumper ! Good , fast lumpers are worth it as long as they don't steal and are reasonable.

 

Running reefer I suppose I've dealt with a lumper service or two. It's a whole train-load better now than it was in the mid-and-late 90's. Back then some places wouldn't let lumpers on their facilities; some required you transport the lumper on their property (I was just waiting on some o/o to get sued over even a minor injury and figured it would've been me but I dodged that bullet). Most of the "lumpers" back then were completely independent and cash was king. I knew a few places where guys had paid small fortunes to get freight unloaded. And then I ran into one place where a driver hired a lumper who started unloading at 7:30AM then at 5:30PM the dock foreman came around and announced that even though the load was less than half unloaded the lumper had to leave the premesis (no lumpers allowed after 5:30) and the driver had to pay the lumper then unload his load himself.

Eventually OSHA stuck its nose into the mix and started insisting that anyone who "drives" a power operated lift truck of any kind must have "proper training and certification." I scratched my head and wondered what the hell all the training I had endured to learn to drive a "power operated tractor-trailer" and then endured even more governmental anal probing to get a CDL-A (which I thought was a license to operate said "power operated equipment") was all about. Then I realized that when you're dealing with multiple unalphabetized alphabetical agencies one license doesn't make any kind of bureaucratic sense because everyone has to have a say (keep in mind: CDL-A, HAZ-MAT endorsement, TWIC card, Passport, fork lift operator certification, Governmental Thought Process License [wait that was revoked many moons ago]).

At any rate, fast forward to today and you have organized companies like LMS Intellibound and Progressive Logistics Service (PLS) that have contracts and their own management structure. While the rates aren't much better overall the system has kind of been cleaned up (and I think this is more a result of IRS issues than much of anything else). I know back during the Paleolithic 90's some of the lumpers were making upwards of $500 to $1000 a day in cash and one thing the KGB --er, the IRS-- loves is to find out that kind of money is changing hands and they aren't getting a taste. Kind of like the Sicilian La Mano Nera, the Black Hand reaches in for its "share" and it gets to determine how much its share is going to be just to be "fair."

I can tell you that recently my company paid over $500 for a breakdown of a consolidated load (meaning my 36 pallets broke down to something like a hundred and some). Oh, and it took every minute of 13 hours sitting in the dock door... I still enjoy Super Valu every bit as much as I enjoy passing kidney stones and colorectal cancer screenings.

Come to think of it, it may be time to renew my "power lift truck" certification.

 

I remember those days we could lump from 5 in the morning till midnite and bring home 800 dollars cash,now all these lumper services came in hired the mexicans for cheap and put all the independant lumpers out of buissness.

 

I hear ya. I see the same thing coming our way every time I see a Mexican, his wife, 8 or 10 kids, a couple of aunts and uncles, a handful of cousins, 4 Rottweilers, a couple of chickens and three of the neighbors climb down out of an old rattle-trap cab-over...

 

I always cash the comchek before I get to the consignee, I negotiate a deal between me and the lumper, his receipt is going in the trash anyway.

I have no problem marking up the lumper service to cover my time, these trucking companies think you should be there free, well no me my time has value also.

I have never had a problem with any of the companies I have worked for. This time of year I unload my own loads anyway.

 

Thank God I don't have to worry about that to often. 98% of the time it's drop and hook for me.