Lumpers - a couple questions

[Castanea_d.]

I gather that in many cases, you hire lumpers when you reach the unloading site, and pay them in some form -- cash? some kind of check from your company? A couple of questions come to mind.

As their short-term "employer," do you have to deal with things like ensuring they have a Green Card or a Social Security Card? Can the gov't come back on you if it turns out they are illegal immigrants?

What happens if a lumper gets injured unloading your trailer? Would they try to collect workman's comp from someone (you, your company, the local shipper/receiver)? Can he/she sue you?

Is there usually a set price at a given shipper/receiver for the job, or is it up to you to dicker with a prospective lumper and agree on a price?

Do you ever run into situations such as "you'd better hire THIS lumper, or his friends (perhaps a local gang? the Mafia?) will be very unhappy with you?"

[PackRatTDI]

I gather that in many cases, you hire lumpers when you reach the unloading site, and pay them in some form -- cash? some kind of check from your company? A couple of questions come to mind.

I paid either cash or comcheck. 90% of the time they'd take a comcheck. I only encountered 2 drops where "independent contractors" refused to take anything but cash.

As their short-term "employer," do you have to deal with things like ensuring they have a Green Card or a Social Security Card? Can the gov't come back on you if it turns out they are illegal immigrants?

I'm assuming that most companies did what Stevens did and gave you paperwork to write down the lumpers information. If it was a service, like at a Wal-Mart DC, you'd get some kind of reciept. When dealing with an independent contractor, you'd have to write down his SSN, name. Since most of those guys would rather operate under the radar, I just saved myself the trouble and made up a phony name and SSN. All the other drivers I knew did the same thing. So the IRS is out there chasing a million ghosts. I used my uncle's name a few times. He's a cokehead that's got a ****load of warrants on his ass.

What happens if a lumper gets injured unloading your trailer? Would they try to collect workman's comp from someone (you, your company, the local shipper/receiver)? Can he/she sue you?

That's a good question. I never encountered that problem. I figured if you used a legit lumper service, they'd cover that. With an independent, who knows. I guess you could argue that the oral contract you entered in with the lumper did not include any coverage for disability, etc.

Any lawyers in da hizzou, lol?

Is there usually a set price at a given shipper/receiver for the job, or is it up to you to dicker with a prospective lumper and agree on a price?

It depended on the location. Some places ran their own service and had set prices. Other lumpers were independent contractors and you could try to negotiate the price. NYC loads usually averaged between $100-150. The most I ever paid was $240 for a Van de Kamps frozen food load that was all on the floor.

Do you ever run into situations such as "you'd better hire THIS lumper, or his friends (perhaps a local gang? the Mafia?) will be very unhappy with you?"

The only grief I got was when I was on trainee-team. My trainee partner wanted to unload every driver-unload he could because he had back child support to pay his wife, so the extra money came in handy. Anyways we were at a drop in New Jersey and the dock manager tried hard to get us to pay for a lumper. For some reason he wanted the shrinkwraped pallets downstacked and re-arranged. It was a trailerload of Celeste frozen Pizza-for-one. It took us a while because the shipper, Van de Kamps, glued the damn boxes together. The dock manager kept threatening to pull us from the dock if we didn't either hurry up or hire a lumper. We got done nontheless. I have a feeling had we paid the lumper fees we'd have been $100 lighter and they'd have just pulled the pallets off as is. Anyways we got $150 to split for that load. come to think of it, my trainee partner still owes me some unloading money. Where is that mother----er.

[brian]

[quote="PackRatTDI"]


I just saved myself the trouble and made up a phony name and SSN. All the other drivers I knew did the same thing. So the IRS is out there chasing a million ghosts. I used my uncle's name a few times. He's a cokehead that's got a ****load of warrants on his ass.


[quote]


and now if he`s ever arrested they`ll look at you for aiding and abetting, good luck telling the judge you were just using his name to avoid problems with your employer

[Rev.Vassago]

As their short-term "employer," do you have to deal with things like ensuring they have a Green Card or a Social Security Card? Can the gov't come back on you if it turns out they are illegal immigrants?

The short answer is that it COULD bite you in the butt, but INS probably isn't gonna bust you - they'll bust the company that the lumpers are working for.

What happens if a lumper gets injured unloading your trailer? Would they try to collect workman's comp from someone (you, your company, the local shipper/receiver)? Can he/she sue you?

As a HHG I/C, I am required to carry workman's comp on all my labor. I've had someone try to collect, but luckily, they put a fake name and SSN on the labor receipt, so they couldn't collect.

Is there usually a set price at a given shipper/receiver for the job, or is it up to you to dicker with a prospective lumper and agree on a price?

Depends - at many places, they tell you the set price, and it is up to you to decide if you want to use them.

Do you ever run into situations such as "you'd better hire THIS lumper, or his friends (perhaps a local gang? the Mafia?) will be very unhappy with you?"

No.

[Sealord]

Another good reason to pull flatbed, no such animal for flatbed freight. BOL

[PackRatTDI]

[quote="brian"][quote="PackRatTDI"]


I just saved myself the trouble and made up a phony name and SSN. All the other drivers I knew did the same thing. So the IRS is out there chasing a million ghosts. I used my uncle's name a few times. He's a cokehead that's got a ****load of warrants on his ass.

and now if he`s ever arrested they`ll look at you for aiding and abetting, good luck telling the judge you were just using his name to avoid problems with your employer

Yeah, well I didn't use his SSN number so I doubt they'll be knocking down my door. He's not the only guy named Fabian out there. :wink:

Besides, last I heard he was in Nogales on the Mexican side shacked up with some horsefaced woman.

[Castanea_d.]

PackRat and Rev. Vassago, thanks for the information!