understanding lumpers and pay

Yeah, you'll have to watch this come tax time. I really hate how Roehl handles lumper fees, because we are double taxed on that money in our paychecks. We have to get an advance to pay for the lumper, then when they give it back make sure it's listed as a reimbursement.

If it's listed as an advance when they return it to you as well, you will be taxed on the reimbursement as if it is a part of your regular pay. For $50.00, it's not a big deal, but some lumpers can cost as much as $300.00, which can drastically affect your tax bracket for the weeks it is calculated into/out of your pay. What I mean is, when you take the lumper, it will come out of the check after taxes. When they put it back in, it will be before taxes.

Also, the payroll cutoff is Friday at noon, any lumper fees that are paid for/turned in after that time will not be reimbursed on the same check which it is taken out of. This is because the "advance" cut-off/refill time is Monday night at midnight. So anything you pay for between Friday and Tuesday morning will come out of your next check (on Wednesday) and will not come back to you until the following check. What's more, you have to SCAN it before Friday at noon, so if you deliver Friday morning, and can't get to scan location before noon, you're automatically going to be out that money for an extra week at least.

Make sure the P.O.# for the fee is on the Trip Sheet, Receipt, and Bills. This will assure that it gets repaid as quickly as possible. They don't require you to put them on the bills, but it doesn't hurt to make a notation something like this:

Lumper 01/07/2011
$50.00 paid comcheck
J.D.

The J.D. is the initials for John Doe, if you can get the lumper service to initial there saying they received payment it's just another way to CYA. If they won't do it, it's no big deal because they have to sign the receipt... I like redundancy when it comes to making sure I get MY money back.

 

so cynical... lol

 

Yep, the name certainly fits, lol.