If you don't play the lumper game, you'll get shafted

Tell 'em Bro !!

 

I'm very new, and havent been out on the road yet - but i noticed that some companies, like Roehl, have a set hourly rate for lumping, like $12/hr. if i wasn't too tired, I think I'd take them up on that. anyone agree?

 

A lumper never cost me a dime out of pocket. If the company's willing to pay a lumper the fees they're charging, that's between them.

 

I have unloaded trailers at times myself in the past, but only when I "had" to. By that, I mean there was no lumper available, or it was going to be hours before a lumper could get to my load.

Some may call it dishonest, but if I was going to unload a load myself, you can bet that I wasn't going to do it for the cut rate price that a company was willing to pay drivers. I charged exactly what the lumpers on the dock were charging. Why should I, someone who spends all day sitting down, have to risk pulling a muscle for 1/3 the rate that someone else would get?

 

the reason the company pays ou less than the lumper is because they don't want you doing it either. you work for them, the lumper doesn't and if the lumper puts his back out who cares. If you do it it's gona get expensive for them FAST

 

Lumpers that I come across are usually grocery loads. The fee for lumpers over the past 7 yrs has at least tripled!! If you want to do, cant use power tools, and will get worn out trying to sort/repkg/breakdown pallets!! Plus, have heard of too many drvrs getting hurt in the process! NOT worth it!!!

 

just as reference. I noticed it stated earlyer about $200 for a lumper.
In 1996 when I quit the refer biz I would pay $90 to have over 1300 boxes of slush packed collard greens loaded on the floor lumped off in Detroit at Macherry Produce on mack st. And I was complaining about that price becasue the year before I was paying $80.
I wouldn't haul a load back then for less than $1 a mile and fuel was $.89, how much they paying now? not much more

 

I know I'm going to get flamed for saying this but if you stand up and tell them your not playing the game you will be unloaded for free and fast just to get you out of there but you have to do it right.

Don't go in like a CB rambo! I have hauled food products about 20% of my freight. 90% of them want you to pay a lumper, some say thats your only option. My company would pay lumpers but I started playing around with what too tell dock workers, because I strongly feel that unloading is not my problem.

Basically what I do is keep the load manifest unsigned and give the rest of the paperwork to the dock foreman. Until the manifest is signed you are still in control of the load. No one can stop you from leaving the property with freight until that paper is signed. Now you calmly tell the foreman that your not paying someone to take his freight off of your trailer as your not the one that put it there. Before the foreman can argue that point tell the foreman that you are going to climb into your sleeper and take a 2 hour nap at witch point you will leave empty or loaded. Any freight left in the trailer will then be turned over to a company that handles 'Overage, Shortage, and Damage' and the foreman and his company can pay the extra fees and shipping costs to bring it back to the property where its already sitting now. Also throw in something about H.O.S. and how if there not fast you will be required to spend the next 10 hours on their property.

I have done this at several Safeway's, Fred Myers, and Ray's just to name a couple and once I figured out just how to pull this off I would feel a forklift in the trailer by the time I got back to the truck and I never heard a peep from my company about it.

Bottom line, I know most of what I said is pure garbage and wouldn't fly in the long run but most foremans are uneducated and afraid what your saying might be right and instead of risking getting yelled at by there boss later they will roll over for you.