Lumpers in Canada
 

I've heard about how 'inconvenient' lumping fees can be for drivers - I was wondering if this is mostly an American problem or if Canadian warehouses are just as bad.

What do you mean inconvenient. It's a real good deal paying a large rich company $50-$400 for taking freight that they ordered. Just kidding obviously,lumpers are one of the larger rip offs in the transportation industry. Some of these d-bag places even require that you hire a lumper.

Why not do something about it?

Add lumping charges in the rate agreement, or something along those lines.

I'm leased to a company with my own truck, so any lumper fees I pay are provided by the company, not by me (they issue an electronic Comcheck and I just give the 50 :) digit number to the slacker, sorry ... lumper). But this is really a ripoff: these people work on the property of the consignee, often using their unloading equipment and we have to pay them? I run into this in Canada too but not as often as in US: I once was delivering something in Ajax or Pickering, just east of Toronto, ON and after the load was taken off the truck, the consignee asked me how I'll be paying! I said "What do you mean? And she said, "You don't have an account with us to pay lumpers who unloaded your truck. Sign this invoice and take it to your dispatcher and ask them to sign this credit application here."

BTW, as far as I know lumping is illegal in USA - there was some legal action initiated by one of the U.S. carriers and the judge deciding the case ruled because the cargo is the property of the consignee, the latter cannot charge any fees for unloading said cargo from the carrier's truck.

Someone seriously needs to tell Wal-Mart,Bi-Lo,Food Lion and all of the other big and rich warehouses and companies that do this. I went to a Wal-mart D.C. once when iw as with Barr Nunn and had to write out a comcheck for an unloading fee on a dropped trailer on a drop and hook load. They werent even unloading it that day and stil charged for it.

I don't know that it has been declared illegal, but it should have been long ago. It is a shake down by the consignee. In the old days it was called racketeering or extortion. Today they call it lumping. :pissedoff:

Of the Wal-Marts I've been to, not all of them charge for unloading, and the ones that do have a standard $50 fee. It's the same if you have one pallet or 24 pallets. I can deal wtih that far better than $95 minimum for 1 case to 500 cases. One pallet, with two layers of cases on it... 24 cases = $95 lumper fee.

And, guess what... He doesn't have to have a driver's license, high school education, or even speak English. He doesn't have to invest $137,000 in equipment, $3,500 on school, or pass a drug test. or physical every two years. And, I personally know of one "former" lumper that brags about making $110,00 in 10 months. That's what I really have a problem with.

Can the driver unload his own truck at most of these places?

Most of them will make you either do it yourself or hire a lumper BUT at alot of them they wont let you have anything other than a standard manual pallet jack and wont let you touch a forklift for insurance purposes,thats the loophole. If you have a 42,000 pound dairy load or something that has to be broken down to 48 pallets and you have to manualy pull that weight off the truck and over a ******ed messed up dock plate and spend 4 hours of your drive time doing it all,most people end up taking the lumper. Even when you have the choice you are almost forced into hiring the lumper depending on what kind of load you have. Some just plain flat out require you to have a lumper and wont even let you set a foot on their precious slab concrete dock. There are more scams out there to steal a drivers hard earned money than you can shake a stick at.

What I have never understood is how the trucking industry decided it was OK to accept the idea (and the cost) of doing the warehouse's work for them. I don't know how it ever got started in the first place. I know it's been happening at least since 1982 when I started driving. Can anyone give me a brief history?

BTW, using a manual pallet jack seems safer than allowing/expecting a driver to jump on a speedy motorized jack that he has no experience on, JMO.