Grace Under Pressure (Sometimes It's Hard to Do)

The Chesapeake bay bridge did scare people being like 220 feet at it's best clearance for ships stacked along queen Anne's Island anchorage which is a box of water about 50 miles long. Waiting to take turns to pass it.

It almost took my life once or twice for sure. Im not worrying about that, out you go quickly. Break a leg on the way down to the steel decking but you must get out when the inside wheels are irrevocably coming up and over the short gaurd rails due to wind pressure from storms. You do NOT want to fall the 220 feet. For one thing you will reach about 130 speed halfway down in about 8 seconds with less than that to go and that water will be like hitting hard concrete. It will really hurt you then drown you slowly while you gurgle. I think of better ways to go out.

I offer another Bridge. This time the New River Gorge in West Virginia near the logging town of Cass and Spruce as the crows fly. That one is almost 900 feet up.

The big bridges excite me. It's the tiny little ones like that along US 4 in Vermont choked with trees, buses and people all bending over the rail showing cracks larger than Hillary. I for one do not care to know what the attraction is other than proper maple syrup in season.

 

The morning I went into Gordon, there was one truck already backed in, then me. Like I said, over three hours to unload, then $325.00 lumper fee! No thanks!
Talking about the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel(s), I had a Ford Taurus with a bicycle on the roof rack once, the winds were so bad they made me put the bike in the car before I could go across! Trucks couldn't go until the wind died down!

 

I think most of us can agree that grocery warehouses usually suck for receiving, unless it is an LTL delivery and you do your own lumping on a small number skids. As far as lumper fees are concerned, GFS doesn't charge that fee--the lumper service does. GFS just wants it unloaded, separated, and stacked to their specifications. You can either do it yourself, or hire somebody to do it for you.

At the GFS in Springfield, Ohio the lumper service is a company called Eclipse. That amount sounds like what they would charge to unload and sort/segregate an entire truckload. You could've done the work yourself over several hours if you didn't want to pay the fee. I've done it, and pocketed that kind of easy money in a relatively short period of time. It's pretty cool when you can say you made $100 per hour for part of your day.

The lumper game sucks, but it's part of that grocery warehouse world and the same scenario would've happened at a hundred other similar places. It's not unique to GFS. You pay tons of money and it takes forever, or you do it yourself and it usually takes longer. The bonus is you gain muscles that most other truckers don't have!

The reason a few people took issue with what you said is that it didn't have anything to do with the topic. Mike drives for GFS, he doesn't have anything to do with warehouse operations or lumper fees. The topic didn't have anything to do with the company; it was about dealing with the challenges and stresses of doing a delivery route without losing one's mind. Things like how playing nice with other drivers in the area tends to pay off.

Next time, maybe you could avoid saying someone works for a bottom feeder company just because you delivered there once. I used to hate delivering there too, but I can assure you that their drivers have a much better job than I did at the time.

 

I once delivered 3200 cases of coconut water to a grocery warehouse in Cleveland - 20 pallets, 10 cases on a layer, 16 high. The customer wanted 8 layers, 80 cases per pallet. Lumper service was $300, I did it myself in a couple of hours. Curious as to how many OTR guys would lump their own freight...not trying to cause a pissing match, I think it's a valid question.

 

Hi Pintlehook, in the 35 years I drove, I never once got a lumper. Even when I delivered car tires, all on the floor. ( truck tires were the worst) Granted, most of that time I was paid by the hour, and mostly local( 500 mile radius) but it was just understood, you unload your own trailer.

 

I felt the same way. I guess the lumpees (?) motto is, a body at rest, tends to remain at rest. Or my favorite, "I get paid to drive the truck, not unload it." Again, my 1st boss would have his foot in your rear as you flew out the door with that attitude.

 

Now to be fair, sometimes I used to hire the lumpers if I really really needed a nap, but considering I was paid unloading pay, those would be very expensive naps.

Back when I was OTR I used to carry a blank receipt pad and hand-write a receipt for unloading for the same amount the lumpers quoted. That's when I'd really clean up. I've heard those days are over. Shippers and brokers no longer accept those receipts for reimbursement. Something about tax evasion or something.

If a company doesn't offer unloading pay and the driver isn't paid by the hour those guys would be doing it for free. So they sit.