Why do lumpers exist?

I hear ya UKJ.Truckers pay them to unload the customers stuff.Why order it if they don't have the manpower to unload.Lumpers at grocery warehouses are making a killing off the trks.I have never paid for a lumper out of my money then get reimbursed.It's either going to be a efs,fleet2,multiserv check but no way will I ever use my money.Then many times you have to wait and wait before they finally get to you.Then you feel the trailer thinken finally then you wait some more.

 

Less expenses for receiver. Save on labor costs, benefits, etc. Had one receiver that actually called a lumper up as needed, so they wouldn't be on the clock like a warehouse employee waiting for loads to arrive.

 

Protects the warehouse. No extra union workers, no worker's comp, if someone gets injured they ha e a harder time suing the parent company since they were employed by the driver & lumper service.

 

Lumper fees are actually billed back to the customer, in many cases the broker of the load. We never lose a penny to the lumpers. Whatever they charge us, is reimbursed back to us each week as long as we have the reciept.

I always tell em charge what you want, just unload it fast.

Let me add this
lumpers are just another part of the industry. They are a third party service, usually not employed by the reciever. They usually have their own company name and insurance.

 

The shipper does pay usually. You just have to call and get authorization from your carrier who gets authorization from the broker who gets authorization from the shipper...

If you haul direct for the shipper, you should be charging enough to cover lumper fees + a little extra for the hassle...

 

I look at it this way, when I had three hundred of cases of shrimp to unload, I wasn't going to do it myself - I hired a group to do it, paid them what they wanted and got my money back from the shipper.

 

Sometimes the shipper "floor loads" a trailer meaning cases are stacked floor to ceiling inside the trailer- on the floor- without pallets. The receiver cant do anything with the load until its on pallets.
And receivers may want a few cases taken off the top layer of a palletized load to fit pallet of product onto their storage racks.

 

it was quite funny how some companies I worked for would pay me $1.00 per thousand pounds to unload. that means, a 40,000 pound load, if I had to unload?

I got paid a whopping $40.

But the company would pay the lumpers (for our cigarette loads) up to $150!