Lumper fees on pay stub, help it make sense.

It really doesn't make that big of a tax difference for me, if any difference at all. They do per diem so that's a break for them. If I were guessing, it's probably documented as after tax because the money is truly not coming out of my pocket. It's coming from them, so it's probably documented that way for them when it's time to do their taxes, as it's probably a deduction for them.

 

This is listed as a "after tax deduction". The same amount that is paid out for lumpers is reimbursed without deductions.

 

Why I dont understand is with modern technology. Why are drivers still having to pay lumpers. Have the lumper fees included in the contract and billed to the company directly. Take the driver out of the loop. This is not the 80's anymore.

 

Agreed. It would save time. Walmart started doing that several years ago.

 

If all the others did, that would make life so much easier on the driver.

 

Wall of text warning...... I'll throw some ancient history out here.

Talking mostly grocery type places here. The typical transport contract has the product delivered and stacked to the receivers specification and it is the driver/carriers responsibility to make it happen..

Used to be driver would pull up with a load, and then start setting the customers product to the tail or take it to the receivers area where the receivers would stack or restack it how it was needed for the warehouse.

Then the grocery places started going union and did not want to pay union wages and disability for the folks working the dock that were hurting themselves throwing around boxes of product. The grocery stores started cutting back on the number of union folks working the receiving dock. Lumper's started contracting with the driver to set the load how the receiver wanted it. Was more cost effective and time efficient for the driver to pay a couple of bums to do the work. The non union houses would not restack the product either because they did not want to damage their employees or give them a reason to unionize.

Prices spiraled as corporations started lumper services with a contract for the grocery chains. Passing the workers comp insurance costs along with management overhead to the truckers/carriers.

To give an idea how this plays out in the world, I hauled a load of candy with 3 stops at grocery D.C.s. BOLs for each stop was a booklet. 3rd stop I got the education. There was another truck with Proctor and Gamble product (soaps, shampoos, conditioners... in a multitude of fragrances). Dock boss came out and talked to us, they literally did not have dock space to work our loads and the other doors. Asked us to call in to dispatch to let them know we will be getting detention. I took a nap and then rolled in to check things out when the truck started rocking. Turns out my dozen or so skids turned into 85 skids going to the warehouse because they were only allowed to put 2 product on a skid. Some of those skids were along the lines of 2 boxes of valentines day king size Snickers and 4 boxes of valentines assortments bags. They had to make sure the products were different brand names on each skid. P&G truck was the same situation... that load broke out to over 100 skids because it was a full load. Took 2 teams of 5 or 6 about 4 hours to stack the loads for the grocery store employee to be able to scan it in. They were into each load about 20 hours of labor. And the 2 loads covered most of the dock. I think my $600 lumper fee was well spent.

In today's market with larger D.C.s, customer speced pallets done by the shipper, and only a few products on the B.O.Ls it is much easier to come up with a valid lumper fee negotiated between the shipper and receiver.