***the Lumper Scam***

Lets get it straight so you understand the "lumper" or paid unloading. Just about every shippers sales department has agreed to pay the unloading costs to the grocery warehouses. NOT the broker! He just contracts out the hauling side. Grocery stores are notorious for charging the sellers for getting the stores to buy their product.

Even when lets say ABC comes out with a new product and the sales guy calls XYZ and starts his sales pitch he knows that there is going to be a "shelving cost" HE has to PAY to XZY to come up with a space on their shelves for ABC's new product. And that price can be as much as $50,000!

Then the sales guy has to work out the shipping costs and the unloading costs! The shipper 90% of the time will be the one to pay the cost but that cost isn't in the BOL. As mentioned all of those silly insurance costs that the warehouse doesn't want to pay, hence the lumper companies! It's a big money issue and I for one am glad I work on the carrier side!

How many other places do you pay for a lumper? At a hardware DC? A paper company? The steel mill when you go in with ingots on a van? Medical supplies, Kraft, Shriber (as bad as they are) auto parts? Plastics, paint, books? ONLY the grocery stores will you pay for a lumper! Now I don't mind paying Wal-Mart DC's their lumper fees as they go to The Childrens Miracle Networt and NOT Wal-marts pocket and you can go to their website and see how much is donated to TCMN! BUT you never have to pay if you deliver to a Wal-Mart store or a Sams club or stand alone store! Go Figure! I've even delivered to small grocery chains and never had to pay a lumper fee because they might have worked out a better deal for the product!

Get over the lumper costs! They don't come out of your pocker at all! EVEN an O/O (those who actually KNOW whats going on) He's usually told what the Rate's are when he calls the broker. But now a days the broker has to break it down for those who haven't got a clue! I know as I supplement my income by broker agenting a load or 2 and you wouldn't believe some of the drivers I talk to who whine about it. If lumper fees bother you that much GTF away from reefer and grocery loads! I have a few drivers I enjoy working for as all I have to tell them is the rate and the times and places and away they go. I WILL tell them what the max is at the warehouse they are delivering to so they don't get screwed and sometimes he won't have to pay a thing due to agreements as with some of the Tyson loads!

Now be careful of that bit of advice earlier with the "get a few receipt books" . Yeah that worked back a few years ago and I did the same thing by passing the thing around the dinner counter getting drivers to sign and come up with SSN's but those days are at an end. O/O's have to be careful with fake SSN as the IRS can come down hard on you when you file those lumper fees on your taxes! Also Companies now want pre printed receipts to file with the shipper and most shippers KNOW who so and so uses as a service! You don't see very many lumpers hanging out on the street corners any more. Be very careful about trying to make that extra money as it can come back to bite you! All that work and then several pay checks later HEY whats this deduction?!? I've noticed the past couple of years every receipt I've been given by a lumper has their name and EIN on it with printed address and phone numbers.

There are some exceptions to the rule about drivers getting pay for unloading but from reading posts and the CB I know that the company will pay you a paltry amount to finger print a load but pay that lumper service big bucks! Also the days of negotiating a price lower are coming to an end! Wal-Mart has a set rate per 100 boxes as do a lot of other places. Then there are additional costs for having to break down from a "bad" pallet and other #### but thats the nature of the beast. But the outcome is this, NONE of the money that a company driver, O/O or L/P pays to a lumper service is "extortion" but a negotiated cost put in the freight rate and agreed to by the shipper and receiver, the carrier being told what the shipper will pay back to the carrier. It's a crock but thats life in the grocery buisness! Like I said earlier, if you cant handle it stop hauling grocery or reefer to grocery chains GET OUT! There are other reefer and dry loads that you can haul!

Good Luck
Rollover

 

What's the highest lumper fee any of you have ever been charged?
I may be out of the loop since I do this very little nowadays, but I experienced my highest last week at Sav-A-Lot in Hammond LA $394.

 

Wow,mustang! I think the highest we have paid was $275...

Judi Kay

 

I brought a load of McCormick spices to a Safeway grocery DC in Covington, KY. They charged $1500.00 to unload that load. I almost had a stroke! I bet the load didnt even pay that much. I figured there was no way my company would pay that much, they didnt even blink an eye!

 

I don't think I have read such a good answer to the problem. I no longer am able to drive but I have always beleaved if you don't like to do something just change jobs or the part where you have to do any unloading and loading.

 

Whoa, that is unreal.

Alluding somewhat to Rollover's post, there was a time when the company would pay us roughly the equivalent of the lumper fee which was around $40-60 in the early 80s.
Not bad for 1-3 hours work, especially at the time. I didn't mind doing it then, considering unloading 2 loads in a week represented a considerable difference on the paycheck.
But the gap between what they will pay us and what they will pay a lumper service has widened exponentially and it's an insult for me to accept $50 dollars knowing they will pay the service $200. or more for the same job.

 

Yeah that money back in the '80's 90's and even now did help! It still helps today if you can get away with getting what they actually pay the lumpers! Now they figure you work for them and paying some piddling little amount to me is an insult! Let them pay everything the lumper wants! If the company wants to haggle over the rate then THEY can call them and haggle like Arabs all they want! It's their money so screw them as they really care about the drivers now a days! If lumper says $500.00 that's what I send in!

 

I disagree with paying someone to unload there frieght ...They ordered it let them unload it and as for the fees they charge its crazy kroger in keller tx they charge 400.00 to unload a floor load of hamburger...I sure didnt or will not unload a truck for any amount my job is or was to get the load there on time its up to the reciver to unload .....This is why i ran flatbed most of my time didnt have to deal with this problem

 

Most of us have flown on a plane or at least been to an airport, right? Let me ask you something, have you ever seen the pilot of the plane UNLOAD LUGGAGE (or pay someone else to unload)???

 

I have ran reefer and paid to unload i got my money back but as fyi i have never flown on a plane if GOD had wanted me to fly he would have given my wings>>>>>