The real truth about lumper fees.

Bout that time I would like to have those trailers on the back of the Chip Trucks I see that push the load out a like a quick stop at the "Schmidhouse"

 

alright...

so i get why some drivers want to unload their own freight, and I understand why some drivers would prefer to drop/hook or just have some lumpers come grab stuff off if they have to deadhead back to the terminal or some such...

what I DONT understand is why the heck some receivers want you to break down the pallets, re-sort the stuff and rebuild a new set of pallets? Don't you guys pick up what was on one dock and drop it off at another dock? sounds to me like it's the SHIPPPERS responsibility to palletize the load to match the RECEIVERS specifications... NOT THE DRIVERS

But hell, if it pays $30/hr and they'll let me work it for 19 hours, I'll get out there with my "Yessir!" attitude, especially if I don't have another load to pick up until after I've had some sleep!!!!

 

when i drive a truck im getting payed to do so .if your new to trucking here is the federal reqirements / you are responceable onlyto tailgat any load.if a company, are , delivery place ask you to unload you have the right
to say i will tail gate the load but im not responceable to do there work for them unless you wont to .most company's will tell there driver they will pay there driver to un load -say $60:00 to un-load the whole trailer and a diferent amount for any thing diferent : now here is the kicker",[ A lumper say's he will un-load the load for/$300:00 ] your company will say give him a com check .why pay the lumper this when they only will pay you $60:00 it dont figure does it.here's the answer / they will charge back the broker for the lumper fee's! but can't if there driver
un-loads ." if you be come a owner operrator here's something you may are may not no.if you pick up a load say to take to a place in va. you get there and the contrack say will be ,un-loaded with in 2 hours but they havent started tuching your load /now here is the really intresting part of this /i picked up a load and delivered on time .i had a opointment time but they said it wood be the next day befor they wood get to me and un-load my triler. well i was least on to B- RIGHT trucking out of ohio .i called my dispatcherand told her what i was told by te receaver she told me to put the receaver on the phone . i put the phone on speaker phone then handed the phone to the receaver she told him that the load had a opointmen time and after 2 hour ifthey did not start to un-load the load that it wood impare the driver from getting to the next apointmet on time and wood cause the shipping company/B-RIGHT to lose the load at the next apointment. well the receaver said they couldn't unload triler till the next day this made my dispatcher really mad .she told them that if they didn't start un-loading my trailer with in30 mins that she was going to have me drive a way to holding yard where it wood be put under lock and key where a bond wood be put on the load and there wood be a charge of $300:00 an hour un-till the bond was paid in full ! my eyes
got big as silver dollars i've been driveing for15 year and never heard , seen any thing like this . the recever said out loud [you cant do this ]! my dspatcher said out lould yes i can and ill do i again . then the receaver said out lould to one of his men get that trailer backed in to the door and un-load it now:! i was unloaded in 30 min's. and on my way .this was a true story,every word of it. 2003






















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You know that's an interesting question. I never asked some of these places why they wanted you to do everything they wanted, I only knew that if they wanted me to do it, I was going to get paid, and paid WELL for it. If I wasn't going to get paid, and get paid well, then somebody else was going to do it for me. I never considered myself am mule with packs, kick my side and I'll kick yours right back. That's the way I look at some of these places making these demands to unload the whole freakin' truck yourself and put X here and Y there. Really, why don't they insist on their vendors in doing that stuff? Simple - their vendors aren't going to be dictated to about how they palletize/load trucks with their products! And if they are going to take that kind of heat, then they are going to CHARGE that customer for doing it. So, in the end, it's all about money - cheaper to have the driver or lumpers do that job (guessing, anyway) than to pay the vendor to do it for them before the truck is ever loaded.

 

that's a good point, trooperrat...

and while reading your response, it dawned on me that in the scenario you're talking about, you're not moving freight from say, wally world DC to wally world store, where i would figure the DC would palletize to meet the needs of the store, but from joe-blow vendor to maybe wally world DC, where the DC may want some of this to go out on X truck and some of this to go out on Y truck...

and then i also remembered, a friend of mine works for a company that makes computer software that a vendor plugs in 'i have this product, it is this size and weighs this much and i need to put as many as possible into a Z trailer/container' and the software will make a loading plan for that...

so yeah, i guess it makes sense to me now why the stuff may not show up at the receiver the way the receiver wants it... but i still fail to see how that's the driver's fault or responsibilty, and if they'll pay me $60 for 19 hours work i'll tell 'em where they can stick it, but if they tell me $30/hr for 19 hours work, i'll still have that yessir attitidue, cuz that's $500+!

 

Well, I would always ask the receiver how long the average load took for the driver to unload - in putting this here and that over there and those things up there. 2 hours, 4 hours, whatever. I was and still am in pretty good physical condition just because of the fact that I would willingly do all of this work - as long as they paid me what it was worth to do it.
The lumpers would give me their fee to do it, and then I would make my demand on my company - give me this or find someone else to do it for me and pay them yourselves.
I would NEVER pay out of pocket to unload a freakin' truck.
Nowadays, I both load and unload trucks - part of my job and I love it. Paid by the hour, I don't care. I didn't just drive all night long to get that load there to unload it, so it doesn't bother me in the least.
OTR - totally different story. You're on the road all day or night - or both - you got the load there, you're exhausted and ready to sleep, getting out and unloaded that frickin' thing is the furthest thing from your mind. I used to force myself out of that thinking because, at least at the time, there was good money to be made in unloading it.
I admit freely that after driving 15 hours straight, the thought was hardly appealing. Yes, I used to run quite illegally - funny I never got caught. Even one time, a Trooper was going over my log book - it clearly showed that I had just driven 16 hours without stopping and he didn't say a word to me about it!
Well, I guess I have to say I'm happy not to be in this current OTR rat-race. I have read too much stuff on this forum and come to the conclusion that it's FAR worse now than it EVER used to be in terms of the bs being shelfed out by big trucking companies.

 

I've always ran a Bullrack or heavy equip on lowboys,floats or step decks and anything I've ever hauled could be made to pretty well unload its self with either a key,winch,cherry picker or a hotshot with good batteries.I never knew how lucky I've been till I joined here and started reading these posts.All my friends that haul reefer complain about this stuff and then try to talk me into hooking up and running with them.I always thought they were just crybabies till I've seen how widespread this crap is.I take my hat off to you guys who have to deal with this stuff.I'd have been in jail for murder after my first stop.You have the patience of Job and a lot more class than I'll ever have.

 

LOL...the Ol' Lady just read this and reminded me that I'd ran coal and rock for a bit too...But it unloaded itself too.Man,Im lazy.

 

Man I hate to sound like a jerk...Please learn how to spell.