Dealing with a lumper

Don't pay them.....

You could always unload yourself and just charge the company a couple 100 for your time

 

I had luck in the past by asking driver in the dock for one

 

i dunno about that...every stinking company that i ever worked for, only paid DOLLARS on the freights weight..

40,000 pounds...???....$40.00

BS.....take cash with you before you get there.??

get a cash advance, that's what i had to do. always got reimbursed.

 

When you go inside the lumpers office. They will tell you the amount to pay. This is when you tell them you have no blanks. I have never seen a lumper not have blanks. They won't allow a piece of paper to prevent them from getting their money!

 

I never had that problem when i did reffer I got paid by the hour but it still wasn't worth sorting a full trailer with ever skid a mix match of produce

 

One thing to be careful about if you choose to go that route. First most times they force you to use a pallet jack. Then tell you that you have to clear that door by a time. Most of these grocery companies have appointments set up and after your allotted time is up you are getting in the way of the next truck coming in. I have seen this happen at a grocery warehouse once. If you are hauling 18 pallets that don't need to be broken down, go for it. However, if you are hauling 18 to 20 pallets that will breakdown into 30 or 40 you are generally not going to get finished in time AND in some situations, your carrier may get fined. Besides I made enough as it was. I rather go take a nap and let em unload me.

 

And even if it doesn't need broken down make sure it not to heavy or you got to pull up hill.. nothing like trying to pull a skid of potatoes up hill on a crappy pallet jack only to find more trouble with the bump on the dock plate

 

I tell the lumpers show me a paper check and we will get the money arranged I am not money bags.

I also put it on the lumper crew to unload the #### trailer. Im going to bed. Its not my problem anymore until shes empty. I spend half my life throwing boxes both ways, and if there are lumpers to get into that trailer? go have fun. Im going to bed. It will be 9 to 12 hours before Its finished anyway.

The worst loads were the McCormick spices out of Hunt Valley Maryland south of the old mall off I-83. Wait a whole weekend on a dropped trailer to load out on sunday night for Sysco in Horseheads monday 7 am.

Get handed a spreadsheet dot matrix print out a foot thick and two pencils. Find out there is about 6000 little individual orders on that trailer of mine.

Sit on a pile dug out of a pallet and start placing one by one, containing 4 or 6 of those cute little spice containers you see in the store. FInd the UPC code and product number and count, find same again on the spreadsheet and check off. pick up the next one.

At 11 am I am 1/3 done. They begin to squawk hurry up you need to be done etc. I look up and down the block long dock that is maybe room for 30 trucks and have two or three of us unloading. Whats the hurry? Continue to hunt numbers on those #### things. check check check.

They sigh and bring in 6 people to get into the trailer with me and start grabbing more pencils and handfuls of my pile of spreadsheets. We are done by 2. Little boxes go flying.

I have had loads that I would start working on the dock master and his whole shift goes home at 4PM comes back at 8 am and Im halfway through the trailer after a evening and morning (16 hours unloading by count and pencil off the floor) and finally get done 24 hours later.

My dispatch starts hollaring that I have to race somewhere else to load hurry and be somewhere next morning 900 miles away, logs be ######.

And you wonder why I love high dollar medicines so much. I don't touch a #### thing back there anymore. They unload, reload bales going back to Memphis in 40 minutes and we will grab the next drop hook etc.

OR that 1400 mile week at 0.28 a mile. Due to all the unloading, loading etc. I know how to run jacks,power and forklifts. But they took that away so it's going to be a while. They don't get a god given right to ##### and moan if I need 12 hours to take a 48 pallet load and turn it into a 108 pallet monster behind my dock. (Alpo Allentown West dog food. They never load say 9 layer 5 per layer. They will cram 12 layer by 5 and then find out the customer wants you take that off big wood int he trailer into their small wood at three bags per layer 8 high.

Thats going to take a while.

There are certain things I flat refuse to do anymore in trucking. They can fire me or I can quit. And it will be a waste.

 

It depends on who you’re delivering to whether they will have checks or not. Some have went paperless and you just give them the money code. Some charge $4 for a check. Some will take a debit or credit card.
You can try google Maps reviews and maybe get some info.