Lumper Fees

You really need a shipper and receiver.

The broker and lumper could take a hike, though.

 

I'd like to know how anyone pulling a reefer says no to loads requiring fingerprinting or lumpers and makes money? It's not a big deal. Pay it and get reimbursed. Seeing more and more where it's already taken care of by the broker and doesn't even have to be paid by me. Wal Mart and Sam's DC's eliminated drivers having to pay their $50 lumper fee about a year ago.

 

That is not a bad situation, but you still have to set and wait for them to count every stinking case, that is BS. If the people doing the unloading were employees of the receiver that would self correct. Bottom line lumper companies are vultures, they work for cheap no benefits, no paper trail.

 

It is so silly to hold up the truck while they are counting cases. Like if they come up 5 cases short they're going to ask you if you know where they are? "Oh here they are darnit, somehow they slipped down into the trailer wall, I hate when that happens", grocery warehouses are on my Do Not Go List. I had some rubber stamp ink pads made up at SteamRoller Copies, one says SHIPPER LOAD SHIPPER COUNT, one says LIVE LOADED-DRIVER NOT ALLOWED ON DOCK, and the other says CHECK IN: CHECK OUT:

 

Great idea. If shipper says you can't sign shipper load and count just incorporate slc in my signature, problem solved.

 

I wasn't around before Lumpers so what did you guys do back in the 80's when you went to unload at a grocery DC? Was it just Receiver/carrier then?

 

That's almost as bad as 247.00 buzzottos charged to pull like 8-9 pallets + 9 hours can't forget that

 

Lumpers won't touch the freight until payment has been made. If i haul a load that requires lumper i tell the broker to either add the lumper cost to the rate or to pay the lumpers themselves, anytime its a winco, fred meyer, walmart or any grocery warehouses they always charge a lumper so if its not on the invoice i call the shipping department and get the price and negotiate it with the broker, if they don't agree to pay for lumper fees then i turn the load down. If the loads not gonna average me at least $1k per day gross then i wont take it because most of the time its 6 to 8 hours to get unloaded with the lumpers and in that time i've lost almost $1k i could've made being on the road for that time. I prefer taking the dry van loads over reefer, 90% of the time its quicker to load and unload and ends up being the same rate and i don't have to use up my reefer fuel, a 4 day cross country trip takes up almost $400 in fuel when the dry van load paying the same would have given me that extra $400 in my pocket and the 8 hours of load and unload time wasted could've been used to be on the road with the next load

 

I had a reman load offered to me via land star agent. 2k. 180ish miles. She said full trailer of water melons going to wal mart..
I said miss. I know you wouldn't know this. But I gave up produce three years ago and I'm not going back. Good luck. I know you will find a driver. But its not me.
Not that I'm gready. But after Landstars 35%. 1,350 was not enough to relive one day of a live unload and possibly rejected load of 30k lbs of water melons.
Worst I had to deal with was 44.3k of recjected floor stacked potatoes. No thank you.
To the op. Sorry I don't know enough yet to offer advice
Good luck to you.

 

I pull reefer and typically go to the same places for the most part so I know where there are going to be fees and or fees already prepaid.
I have seen pallet exchange fee at the shipper as much as $200 and lumper fees at the receiver $400, over $600 on a $1200 load. NO THANKS!
Most receivers use the RoadSync app service, where they text you and you can pay online from your phone via an express code.
When this happens I will contact broker and have a code sent to me to pay the fees.
If its an early morning delivery and the brokerage does not have a night dispatch I will pay the fees with my own credit card.
They have only been a handful of places that I've gone to where they wouldn't accept a card and only EFS check, not even an express code.
Those places I stay away from or make sure that I have checks on hand.
If you have a fuel card you can setup yourself to issue EFS funds. Good luck