Lumper scam

Yeah definitely sounds like a nice little scam going there.

 

The most I ever paid was $240 for a load all on the floor. To top it off the shipper, Van De Kamps of Jackson, TN charged $70 to load the trailer.

 

325 last week to unload light bulbs in Memphis. Plus 7.5 hours to do it.

 

I don't understand how the company outsourcing the loading and unloading operations should become the trucking company problem. I mean honestly when a company is bringing another company in to do these kinds of positions its generally because they feel its economically beneficial to do it.

So now they have managed to remove jobs from their company bring in a contractor which theoretically reduced costs. THEN they get to charge the trucks a fee to unload so they have basically passed the unloading costs off to the trucking companies. I have to say honestly I'm surprised the industry as a whole let it happen but now that it has its virtually irreversible.

 

I'm just a wannabee here but why are they even stacking items on the bed of the trucks? Isn't this what pallets were designed for? It seems like extreme waste on the part of the companies shipping and receiving the goods to do it this way. I understand in some cases there may be valid reason to not use pallets but when your talking about light bulbs if its normal ones I don't see a valid reason.

 

The carriers don't absorb the off load/break down cost...it is figured into the price of haul.

If you figure in all the overhead of each employee...it does make sense to out-hire a minimum wage or commission position.

Pallets have cost...they don't just magically appear. Plus the 4 inches of height the pallet adds to the stack height could be the difference of one layer of product per pallet...or more!

Floor stacking is more space efficient...in other words, the shipper can get more product on the trailer. That holds true for lightweight loads...light bulbs, butt wipe, "popcorn" packaging material....some places board up the back of the trailer, cut a hole in the new "wall" then blow in the "popcorn"...the receiver will then vacuum out the product in a similar fashion.

And the driver gets to clean up the residual mess!

 

So who pays these "fees"? Are you, the driver, expected to have this cash on hand in order to get loaded/unloaded?

 

I believe the normal payment is thru a comcheck from your company, no cash out of pocket.

 

Some places the lumpers won't take comchecks. I went to a warehouse in Connecticut where I ended up having to bobtail to an ATM.