| 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 receiver and say, “Hi, I have a delivery for you.” The receiver
looks at your paperwork and 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?
For some reason, many trucking companies will pay a lumper more money
for this task than they will their own driver. Most lumpers will demand
anywhere from $60 to $150. While most companies are willing to pay lumpers
whatever they ask, they will only pay their drivers about $40 to $60
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 the work?
If a company is willing to pay a lumper $150, then they should offer
their driver the same $150. It’s only fair.
Then there’s the time factor. It almost always takes 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 receivers 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” they say. 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-paid 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 the shelves. But shippers should know this and load accordingly.
One solution that I have found effective is, when negotiating with lumpers,
put some conditions on your deal. For example, when a lumper says he
wants $80, I look at my watch and say, “I’ll give you a $100 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 the warehouse work on your time. Pull all my skids off first,
then sign my bill, then I’ll pay you and leave, then you can do the
re-stacking. 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 do indeed 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 goodness 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
there quickly, while I sit in my truck and catch up on paperwork (or
rest) and surprise me by bringing my paperwork 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 broken-down equipment to
use while lumpers are using the best available and purposely making
things difficult for me (like not telling me where empty skids are).
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 (lumpers) 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 lumpers with attitude, keep a
list and never go back. At least you won't be contributing to the problem
at that warehouse! Thanks for listening and please be sure to check
out www.bigcitydriver.com
for more fun stories and interesting articles from a driver’s perspective.
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