Lumpers

[Tobin S.]

Do you know what a lumper is? They are people who unload trucks for cash. They have no benefits from the job other than staying in good shape. Depending on the size of the job and where you are in the country you can expect to pay anywhere from $40 to $300. There are usually no set prices. The lumper just sizes up your load and says, "I'll do it for this much."

Shippers and receivers love lumpers. It's basically free labor for them. They get the trucks unloaded and the freight sorted by hand and re-palletized and they don't have to pay anybody anything except for the forklift driver who takes the freight off the dock and stacks the pallets on shelves. The lumper gets paid and the truck driver becomes poorer unless the company will reimburse him for it. Company drivers usually get reimbursed. Owner-operators, like me, can get reimbursed, but it can be like pulling teeth getting the money.

The trucker can also choose to unload the freight.

So, I walked on this dock and asked a lumper how much to unload and sort my freight. I told him I had 6 pallets and didn't figure it would be too much. The guy told me $150. I told him I'd do it myself and started slinging freight.

Two pallets and 2.5 hours later I spoke with the lumper again and he told me $75, that sounded like a hell of deal to me and now I'm taking it easy in my truck and writing to you guys. I'm not 18 anymore and, besides, I'm a trucker, not a lumper! :)

[Swede]

1. I have a few driver friends.

I've heard them mention lumpers lots of times.

[PJPhreak]

2. I know that paying someone to "Lump" yer truck hits one hard in the wallet,

But I want to be the first to Thank You.If it was not for Drivers like you some of us would have gone very hungry in the past! Myself included.

You Rock!! Safe Miles and Sunny Days.

Edit to Add: If you have a drop in the Wichita,Topkea or Kansas City area,I'm available!

[Tobin S.]

3. You're welcome

I guess it's money, but I'd much rather prefer that shippers and receivers hire labor and pay them benefits as well as a decent wage. Not only would it make my job easier, I think it would be better for everyone. Those guys can get hurt unloading those trucks and I don't know if they have any recourse if that happens. They would certainly lose their wages and they may not even qualify for worker's compensation unless they are carrying the policy themselves. Being an independent contractor, that's what I have to do.

But, yeah, I know. We all gotta eat.

[PJPhreak]

7. Thats Cool,I have to agree with you. nt

[likesmountains 52]

4. In the early 70's my boyfriend and I drove a U-Haul to Chicago for money and hitchhiked

back to Colorado. A trucker picked us up and had us unload his truck of flooring materials in North Platte, Nebraska. Then we all went out to dinner (not much of a dinner actually!) and he made us pay for his meal too. I think we made it back to Colorado with about $18 on that money making scheme. We got lots of rides with truckers back then on several cross country trips. Now, I think it's not that easy to get rides.

[Tobin S.]

5. I used to pick up hitch-hikers every once in a while

But I've become too afraid of being robbed to do it now.

[Roon]

8. In the mid 80's I used to hitchike between keystone and denver

every other weekend or so. I don't hitchhike today because no one does it anymore and you really make a spectacle out of yourself standing on the side of the road holding out your thumb.

Decades ago aspen used to have marked pulloff spots on the side of the road just for hitchhiking. They even had a universal picture of a thumb.

[Roon]

6. Ugh! Fingerprinting sucks..

I got reimbursed for hiring lumpers,so I used them all the time. Who wants to drive across country and end the trip unloading a trailer? Fuck that!

[hunter]

9. The first time I ever made $100 in a day was doing that.

That was thirty years ago when dollars went a lot further than they do now. $40 today is sad.

I flunked organic chemistry one semester because making money unloading trucks was more fun than going to class and studying.

[MiddleFingerMom]

10. Oh... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...did you say "LUMPERS"?

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[Tobin S.]

11. I feel like that dog sometimes

Now that I have a computer, I don't have to embarrassingly park my rig at one of those roadside adult book stores. :D