Lumpers: Service or Scam?
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How many times has this happened to you? You show up at a warehouse to make a delivery. You walk in smiling. You pleasantly hand your papers to the receive and say, “Hi, I have a delivery for you.” The receiver looks at your paper work, then asks, “Do you need a lumper, or are you going to unload it yourself?”
Your smile is suddenly gone as you realize that your day may have just been ruined. A whole bunch of thoughts and questions race through your brain as you wrestle with this unexpected problem. Is the product heavy? Do I have to re-stack every box, or just break each skid down to a certain level? Will a lumper get me out of here quicker than I could?
How much money will it cost? Do I have enough cash on me? Will it cost more than my company is willing to pay? Will they purposely try to make it difficult for me if I decide to unload it myself?
Many trucking companies will pay a lumper more money for unloading than they will their own driver.
Most lumpers will demand anywhere from $60.00 to $350.00. While most companies are willing to pay lumpers what ever they ask, they will only pay their drivers about $40.00 to $80.00 (in most cases) for the same exact job. Companies claim that they do this because they want to discourage drivers from wasting all their energy on physical labor, so that they have more energy to drive, when they leave. However, I question their motivation. Why should it matter who does it? if a company is willing to pay a lumper $150.00, then they should offer their driver $150.00. Its only fair.
Then there’s the time factor. It almost always take a much longer time to get unloaded when skids have to be broken down or re-stacked. To me, this is warehouse work and should be done in the warehouse, after the truck is unloaded and gone. It just doesn’t make sense to re-stack a skid, or break it down to two skids while on a truck, because for one thing, you will then have to move two skids instead of one. Plus, you are making a truck wait, while you do warehouse work.
Good shippers and receiver know this and they get trucks out of their docks quickly.
Then there’s the union factor. Some union grocery warehouses won’t even step into your trailer. It’s “not their job.” While lumpers are flying around on forklifts and electric hand-trucks, drivers are given broken down hand-jacks to move skids and no room on the dock to put things. A driver who has never been to a given warehouse, can’t possibly know where things are. But try to ask a union warehouse worker for a few skids or a hand truck, or anything. They make it as difficult as they can for you, if you don’t hire their over payed lumpers. And even if you do hire their lumpers, they do their re-stacking on your trailer and it still takes all day.
Granted, some warehouses have height limitations. If you look around, you will see that all the shelves, where they stack the skids are only four or five feet high. So naturally everything has to be broken down to fit on these shelves. But shippers should know this and load accordingly. Or warehouse workers should do it- on the dock.
One solution I have found is, when negotiating with lumpers, put conditions on your deal.
For example, when a lumper says he wants $80.00, I look at my watch and say “I’ll give you a $100.00 if you get me out of here in less than one hour.” They’ll usually answer back, “That’s impossible because I have to re-stack everything.” Then I will say, “Do warehouse work on your time. Pull all my skids off first, then sign my bill, then I’ll pay you and leave, then re-stack. What’s the difference? Why make me wait? It’s not worth paying you if you can’t save me some time.” Usually that works, but not always.
Lumpers are some of the hardest working people you will ever meet. They do indeed provide a service. One that is needed and appreciated by truck drivers. Yes, they make good money, but they also earn it. It’s back breaking work, especially heavy boxes, like canned foods. I don’t know how they do it, truck after truck. Thank God most trucking companies will pay them for you. You really should conserve your energy for driving.
I define a good lumper mostly by his speed. If he can get me out of their quickly, while I sit in my truck and catch up on paper work (or rest) and surprise me by bringing my paper work out to me (sitting in my truck) sooner than expected, I would say it is worth the price. But when it takes all day (causing me to lose a days pay) and on top of that, I have to pay for it, that puts them on my black list and I will never haul another load to them again. Especially when they treat me like a second class citizen and give me a broken-down hand-jack, when lumpers are using electric ones and purposely making things difficult for me, like not telling me where empty skids are, etc.
As for me personally, I like to get a little exercise (and extra pay) once in a while and will occasionally unload light things. But, when I have a heavy product and I am tired, I am very happy to see lumpers.
It’s up to us drivers to help train them to our way of thinking. They will never understand how important time is to us, until we explain it to them and offer them incentives to get us out quickly. As for the hard-headed, rip-off, slow ones, with attitudes; keep a list and never go back.
That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.
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With the current leadership,
America is becoming known as thugsville
From the top on down. as to the lumper trade, it’ll always be hard to have respect without a spokesman. Unions are routinely castigated for most anything that any dumb a$$ farts out but these groups at least have an ability and leverage, I’m personally not a member yet reality check tells me I have no job protection except someone else’s mouthed promises. Everything you are told to read and sign are these threats for expulsion from the group, and it’s their wording, paid to a so called professional who looks at all the ways to protect the person with the bankroll
Cry babies that have never tried to understand this in their own minds are the real problem, therefore keep reaping what your ignorance has sown, at the end of the day, rules really only work for the elite, we ready have been taught in almost every way that we should be grateful for the crumbs, and some of you are stupid enough for this?
Go figure
YOU, my friend, are clearly “AWAKE”
I just want to say im a lumper who is the son of a driver. I knoe how important ur time is. When i first started as a lumper in an aldi warehouse [subcontracted] if u had a stright pull 60 bux and u were on the road or sleeping in our lot in 15 to 20 min. Then aldi said hey you cant count in product because ur just a lumper. So now you have to wait 2 to 3 hours. I dont want u clogging up my bays any more than you all wanna be sitting there. But some times its not our fault we get u out late just like many times it not ur fault you showed up late. 🙂
We as lumpers reduce the turnaround time and costs for everyone involved. They should praise lumpers for letting them sleep in the cab instead of criticize the industry. The warehouse sets the rules we should bang out the product as fast and accurate as possible to get you on your way.
R where are you located?
You as lumpers are also a big problem. You unload a truck and then you go on break without so much of a word to the driver who sits there waiting for a green light to get his paper work which he can’t get until you count everything. This Is going to become an even bigger problem when the new ADL system starts up. Trucks are going to end up sitting at the dock pass their allotted time and will not be moving because of that hold up. I don’t know about the rest of your drivers out there but I do know that my husband is not going to chase the clock because of all these stupid hold ups. On top of that, you companies that make up these insane appointment times that you can never keep better get used to the idea that there will be trucks parked on your premises because they cannot go anywhere as their time has run out sitting and waiting for you to load or unload. That is the law and the ADL is only going to make it worse. There will not be any more doctoring of logbooks so when the ADL says your driving time is done you will be stopped right where you are regardless of whether it’s at your dock or on the side of the road. As far as I’m concerned the trucking companies don’t give a rats ass about the drivers and their safety… Only about the money they make for themselves.
So I am a lumper and I’m reading this and a big thing is left out that you all are forgetting, in the warehouse I work at a driver is not allowed to use the warehouses equipment due to safety issues, that’s not me implementing that, it’s the company who contracted us. So if you show up with no jack the only other way for you to get the freight off is either through me or by hand unloading and you all know how long and physically straining that can be, so it’s not like I’m screwing the driver, these are the rules the warehouse has put in place, not to mention when I get a 53 footer and it’s a floor load, I’ve only seen like one driver willing to pull a load like that. As for the breakdown of a pallet, we do that before you leave so that the warehouse can check it properly, sometimes these pallets can be extremely difficult to check without it being separated.
I own a Lumper Service and I agree with everything I’ve read here. Its not an easy job, there is little respect across the board, and a lot of my peers take advantage of carriers. The kickback rate of your “Lumper fee” at most grocery warehouses are at 50% or greater. Whats left is cut in half at least, to pay the lumper. So remember this, the best case senario is that 25% of your fee will go into the pocket of the lumper and after taxes not much is left, they are luck to pull in 12$ per hour. Its a tough industry.
Hi Brian-my fiancĂ© has worked in a warehouse on a forklift for over 7 years and has recently wanted to put in a bid to be a lumper, or I guess we can say own an onsite lumping service. My grandfather was a retired truck driver for over 42 years, and I’m embarrassed to say this is new to me. I’m lost as I will be putting the proposal together. Will I add in the workers comp and general liability insurances, make the laborers carry their own, etc etc, so many questions. He makes about $15 an hour stacking hundreds of pallets daily from 4am to 1pm and as I see above once the fees are paid out the earnings are pretty low. He can look at a truck and charge $400, what’s his kickback for his pocket in this. Do we go at it as a business by getting our business tax liscense and EIN number with our insurance as a subcontractor or independent contractor does? We own a drywall business and do all the above hence my question of comparison. I’m looking for some great thorough meaning for his onsite lumping service business and laborers he will pay from his pay, I have done a lot of research and ofcourse sat down with my fiancĂ© trying to gather all this the correct way. Thank you for your help and any advice and explanations of owning a lumping company or being a lumper. I appreciate your time.
It’s all about maximization of assets. The warehouse maximizes their asset by using all the space in their warehouse, which usually means the vendor pallet has to be restacked to match the warehouse ti-hi. The carriers want to maximize the cube on each load to get the most for their fuel dollar. Our company receives primarily LTL loads and many break down to 100’s of pallets. If the vendor shipped as individual pallets, it would require multiple trucks. Also, some drivers prefer to unload and restack, most do not, but ALL lumpers are paid to restack. It’s what they do. Warehouse management wants the path of least resistance and best bang for their buck, Grocery warehouses especially must ‘turn’ several trailers through each door daily so they want it fast, but dock space is always at a premium. Warehouse management knows the lumpers are their most consistent bet for getting the truck unloaded carefully and with maximum efficiency. Don’t get me wrong, I have been in Grocery Distribution management for over 30 years and I have always felt that drivers generally are the most unappreciated workers on the planet, but the lumpers also serve a very important function and I would hate to do it without them.
I used to drive stateside from Canada with truckloads of cookies and twice at the same wharehouse i had to deal with the manager about unloading the truck and restack the skid…..i said no for both occasions.
The wharehouse manager told me i could leave with all the cookies!!!!!
Then, i replied to him that i should call immigration since i’m a Canadian and my trailer is part of your wharehouse since it’s backed solid on your dock. I’m not allowed to do manual work in the USA.
All of the above is mostly accurate except what the lumper makes directly, and that’s normally just at or above min wage
This means who ever actually takes back the rest of say 350$ after a 100$ lumper pay deduction gets this without nothing more than making that initial sales pitch for services to the warehouse ownership, bribery payouts aside!
Fruck, there’s simple greed and then there’s this lumper poverty schedule, I do my own, always call well in advance to verify what the expectations are, both in repalletizing, time allowed in the dock, pallet jack use for maneuvering,
real charges for a lumper, this way I can let the dispatch know early on my expectations as to what I should see on my pay, and people, always get confirmation from your OTR company by email, it’s your bonafide non arguments allowed pay stamp
My avg pay goes up extravagantly some weeks, all through just looking ahead and careful planning
Today it’s all about driver retention, you can make this happen, suggest have it written in to your pay per mile etc agreement, more power to the drivers out here, allow little to the pencil pushers that have scammed this industry so ridiculously long,
this electronic age allows us to be just as informed as anyone, demand what you should be paid, it’ll ring through just like at independence hall and the ringing of the liberty bell,
today is the start of our declaration to be paid as true professionals, not the itty bit leavings that stinks like the bottom of the rotten barrel antics we’ve come to expect, not sorry I ranted here, we all should take that turn and NOW!!
Nice comment Davey. Thanks for chiming in.
The only lumpers i have experienced are at grocery warehouses. all the above discussions skirt the REAL point! why is the grocery segment the only one which charges to unload us? if a flatbedder pulled into a steel place and they offered to charge to unload, do you think anyone would go back there? that leads me to the next question: why do we CONTINUE to run grocery loads?
They ordered it not me
if they want it only so high on a pallet then they can pay for more trucks to deliver the same load
when i go to Sam’s or Costco i don’t get to charge them to re stack it so that it Fits on my shelf ‘ s
you have no clue what you are talking about with this statement (Then there’s the union factor. Some union grocery warehouses won’t even step into your trailer. It’s “not their job.” ) it is not the union forcing that issue, it is the company. if they go on your trailer they could get fried. believe me, as unionized employees we want to secure as much work for our members as we can. also those over priced lumpers are brought in by the company, and most likely the company is getting about 30% of what they charge you to unload, you don’t think that lumper service has an exclusive deal with that warehouse because they are just nice people.
at our union shop we have just the opposite battle going on, for over 50 years we have done all the unloading on all freight that comes into our shop, strait loads, break downs, floor loads, now the company is trying to bring in a on site lumper service for the reason i stated above.
your article makes some very good points but you need to do more research into why this explosion of on site lumper service is happening and the facts around it. I will see if I can pm the author and give him some more insight into this issue.
I’m sure you are correct about what you see at your workplace. But what I described is what I saw at other places. And I do agree that it’s the company bringing the lumpers in. No matter how you slice it, someone is making some money. And most likely some cash under the table too.
Come to Canada Where Shippers and receivers do there own jobs. You people in the U.S. charging your criminal fees to do your own job is pathetic and you are no better then a thug holding a gun on a store owner and demading money. If you don’t want to receive your own product do something else. Open a mcdonalds.