***the Lumper Scam***

And thats the point. It shouldnt be happening in the first place. After all, what can they do to you? "WE DONT EVER WANT YOU TO COME BACK HERE!

Eat me.

So if the Fishhook started making drivers pay for toilet seat time and rationing paper, certain entepreneurs among you would seize this opportunity to offer his services and supplement his income by wiping his fellow drivers' mudslides away in exchange for their unused portions of toilet paper.

Personally, I'd rather use the front lawn and scoot in the grass when I'm done than pay for seat time.

 

If I needed supplementing, as a driver. I would look for another job, with another company.

I'm as greedy as the next guy, but I have my limits. And I've reached those limits.

I perfectly happy with my existing paycheck...spank you very much.

 

Grocery warehouses do it this way to save on liability insurance. My first OTR Logistics job was for a company that specialized in Grocery. If the Grocery warehouses hire permanant employees to unload, sort & segregate this product they would pay HUGE liability insurance premiums for those employees. By not "directly" employing those people and having a LUMPER SERVICE onsite (usually Labor ready - paid by the day guys) they still end up absorbing the cost of the unloading but in a backwards-loophole kind of way.

Example: They ordered the load of catsup, its $200 to unload at their whse. The driver pays the lumper $200 (either by com check or out of his own pocket and gets reimbursed by his company) This unloading charge has been added to the cost of freight and the carrier adds it to the invoice to the Catsup company (shipper). The catsup company then adds it to their "freight costs" when they invoice to the Grocery warehouse who bought the product - and the driver ultimately delivered it to. NO ONE IS GETTING SCREWED OUT OF MONEY HERE - except maybe the insurance companies..... )

 

You forgot the broker(s) in the middle pocketing every cent they can get away with.

 

WRONG!!! We all get screwed at the retail level. All those extra costs are passed right on down the line all the way down the line to the end user, you and me!
and if lumper fees are added to the frieght cost as you suggest, then why are truckdrivers even involved in that transaction? why dont the r'cvrs simply deduct these charges from the bill they get from the shippers? it's seems to me like a complex shell game to hide money from the tax man and make a few more $ worth of profit ar our expense.
But what do I know? I'm just a dumb trucker!

 

I talk to truck drivers all day long and you belong to a group of people I've come to deeply respect and learn from everyday. The DUMB TRUCKDRIVER is a stereotype I debunk when I hear it.

Shifty brokers may figure out ways to make $$ off the lumpers by having naieve customers who dont require documented proof. However, most of those shippers are the freight bill payers - and all of the customers I've done invoicing for require a copy of the lumper receipt (w/ name - phone # of the lumper svc, and ssn of the lumper) as well as a copy of the processed comcheck for verification purposes or they DONT pay that lumper charge.

Your train of thought is correct, however, think about it this way: If the shippers paid more in lumper fees to get the trucks unloaded then they would paying payrolls, liability insurance, benefits, etc for those employees to just work directly for them - then that extra would ALSO be passed on to you and me, the ultimate consumers. So if maybe...just MAYBE, doing it this way saves the ultimate consumer a few bucks - then that wouldnt be such a bad thing .....would it?

 

Stop it driver!
You're making me dizzy.

 

The last company I drove for, had an $80 cap on lumper fees for trucks who are delivering to one of our warehouses.
However, when a new operations manager came on board, he brought his lumper wranglers with him. They did away with that cap, and we can only guess what they did with the extra money they charged.

At one of the warehouses, it was small, and only had 2 company employees. They also had 2 lumpers on hand.
We moved product around between the three warehouses on our own trucks.
When the third warehouse was scheduled to receive lots of outside deliveries, everybody was very busy unloading the trucks, labeling the pallets, and slotting the pallets in the warehouse.
If they weren't unloading outside delivery trucks, the company paid the lumpers to unload our own trucks. That was only at that one particular warehouse.
These lumpers were not employed by any day labor service.

 

The receiver hires lumper services for several reasons:

1. They don't have to supply insurance.
2. They don't have to pay workers comp.
3. They hold no liability for them.

There are more reasons, but those are the major ones. The reason drivers have to deal with it is because the lumper service determines the fee, which most times it's negotiable. There is not set rate, due mainly cause most base cost on case count and break down of pallets. Lumper services want to maximize revenue, as it's a business like ours, so with variences in loads, they don't set a flat rate. I deal with this every day, every week, but my shippers always pay for lumper fees. I doesn't seem right to pay someone to off load their freight, but the big companies look at the bottom line, and lumpers are the cheaper way out. Besides, you actually think they care what we think?

 

Pull your sweat pants up, kick of your house slippers, pull the straps tight on your velcro sneakers, put the box of twinkies down. AND GO MAKE SOME MONEY GEEZE!!!!

I used to drool $$$ when I saw LUMPER REQUIRED on my bills. As much belly aching as I see on this board about no miles, and not enough money. Some of you could actually be doubling your weekly pay if you'd put a little effort into it.