What is the Purpose of Lumpers?
If you had to make a list of some of the positions that are crucial to the trucking industry, lumpers would undoubtedly be right at the top.
Essentially, a lumper is a person who unloads cargo when it arrives at a warehouse. A driver picks up a shipment from its point of origin and takes it to its destination. The business representing that destination has likely hired a team of third-party individuals to safely unload that truck. These would be lumpers.
A lumper is particularly valuable in situations where specialized skills are needed to ensure the safe handling of goods. This is why you’ll see a lot of grocery store chains hire lumpers, for example, as unloading perishable goods in a way that keeps everything safe until it reaches store shelves isn’t necessarily a task you can assign to just anyone.
A lumper is often trained to be able to accomplish their job not only quickly, but accurately and (most importantly) safely as well.
Depending on the exact company they’re working for, lumpers could be involved in a wide range of different types of freight. They can handle the aforementioned grocery store inventory items to household furniture and other large products, for example. They don’t just load and unload in a general sense. They stack, organize, and more. This is what separates them from any average employee who may be hired by a warehouse to perform similar duties. By profession, a lumper is dedicated to offering a level of care and attention-to-detail that it is difficult to match through other means.
What are Lumper Fees?
In the trucking industry, a lumper fee is a charge relating to freight deliveries that equates to the value of the labor that was necessary to both load and unload the cargo in question.
Sometimes, a company will need to hire a third-party worker to move a shipment from one place to the next. Naturally, that will mean loading and/or unloading a truck, which is physical work to be performed. A lumper fee helps to cover the costs associated with that action.
What Is a Typical Fee?
Lumper fees will vary depending on the job because there are so many different factors involved. In addition to base wages, a lumper fee is also meant to provide assistance with any tools, materials, or other supplies that may be required. Generally speaking, a lumper fee will range from $100 to $500 depending on these conditions.
What are Lumper Receipts?
As the term implies, a lumper fee receipt is simply proof that payment has been made. Sometimes this can come in the form of a paper receipt, or it may be in a digital format. Regardless, it will have the same basic information including the date and time that the work was performed, as well as an overview of the services.
Who Pays Lumpers?
Oftentimes, freight brokers will make it a requirement as part of their contract that drivers use lumper services. This is done to guarantee the safety of the shipment, as well as all involved. The broker will be responsible for paying the lumper fee. If they don’t do so directly and the driver does, the driver will eventually be reimbursed.
In certain situations, it’s possible to get a lumper fee advance – as is true when drivers partner with OTR solutions like the team at Advanced Commercial Capital. If a driver is being told that they must pay the lumper fee up front, they can get an advance from Advanced Commercial Capital to cover those costs. That way, they don’t have to worry about any financial strain or potential payment delays when the work has been completed.
Laws Surrounding Lumpers
The major law surrounding lumpers is Title 49 of the United States Code 14103. It expressly states that the shipper or receiver (depending on the agreement between these two parties) is responsible for all costs associated with paying a lumper and their fees.
Of course, not every driver is necessarily aware that the law is on their side – meaning that they could fall victim to scams if they’re not careful. If you’re a driver that is expressly told by your freight broker that you are responsible for the fee, or that you have to pay upfront and will not be reimbursed, this is likely a scam. It could be that the broker is attempting to essentially trick you into reimbursing them for a fee they’ve already paid, allowing them to look legally compliant on the surface while getting back the lumper fee in the end. The same would be true if they insist on taking money to cover some or all of the lumper fee out of your eventual payment.
Pro’s & Con’s of Hiring Lumpers
For most organizations, the major benefit of hiring lumpers comes by way of the money they save in the long run.
The alternative to lumpers would involve hiring your own permanent team of staff members to accomplish the same task. You might think this would be easy, but again – many types of freight require specialized skills to handle properly. Finding the sheer volume of these employees that you would need to avoid delays isn’t just expensive – it’s also incredibly time-consuming.
Not only that, but when you hire lumpers, you don’t need to concern yourself with things like payroll taxes or workers’ compensation insurance. This alone can make it a cost-effective way for mid-sized organizations in particular to get this important job done.
One of the potential cons of hiring lumpers ultimately has to do with a lot of the criticism they regularly receive from those in the industry. If the events of the last few years taught us anything, it’s that the supply chain is inherently fragile. On the one hand, things have grown to the point where it’s now possible for even small businesses to operate on a global scale. However, anything you add to the supply chain increases its complexity, which also represents another potential point of failure moving forward.
Because of this, lumpers are seen by some as an unneeded addition to a supply chain that has already grown far too large over time. Whether that will impact your own business remains to be seen, but it is something that people have discussed in the recent past.
If you’d like to find out more information about the intricacies of lumper fees in the world of trucking, or if you have any additional questions that you’d like to go over with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t hesitate to contact the team at Advanced Commercial Capital today.