Lumper

What it means

The FHWA freight glossary describes lumpers as "individuals that assist a motor carrier owner operator in the unloading of property; quite commonly used in the food industry."^[1] Two parts of that definition matter. A lumper helps with the truck's freight, not with the warehouse's own storage work. And the job is tied to a delivery: the lumper shows up because a truck is at the door.

The word covers the person, the crew and the business that supplies them. A receiver may say "the lumpers" when it means an outside company that holds the unloading contract for its docks. A driver may say "the lumper" when talking about the fee on the receipt. All three uses point to the same thing: paid labor to move freight on or off a truck at the dock.

Federal law has a short rule about this help. Under 49 U.S.C. 14103, when a shipper or receiver requires that a truck be assisted in loading or unloading, the shipper or receiver must provide the help or pay the carrier's costs for it, and coercing a carrier to load, unload or hire people to do it is unlawful.^[2] For how that plays out on a real load, and who the carrier bills, see who pays lumper fees.

Where lumpers work

Lumpers are most often found at receivers that take in many truckloads a day, especially grocery and retail distribution centers. FHWA notes they are common in the food industry.^[1] A 2010 Supermarket News report on lumpers in the Puget Sound area described crews unloading at grocery distribution centers run by Safeway, Fred Meyer and Unified Grocers, among others, and said they were paid by the unit, or piecework, rather than by the hour.^[4]

The reason is practical. A large DC sorts and checks freight to its own standards. Using one unloading crew lets the receiver control how cases are broken down, stacked and counted, instead of leaving that to each driver. Floor-loaded freight is where this matters most, because every case has to be handled by hand.

Lumpers can also work at the shipping end, loading trucks, but the statute and most of the disputes are about the receiving dock, where a driver arrives and is told who will unload.

Lumper vs. other people who unload freight

Several kinds of labor can empty the same trailer. What separates them is who ordered the work and who the worker answers to.

The last row is easy to confuse with lumping. At RapidShips, for example, the crew does container unloading at our own dock in East Brunswick, NJ, as a service the customer books and we quote by job. We do not supply lumper crews to other facilities. Whether the truck waits for that unload or leaves the trailer behind is a separate choice, covered in live unload vs. drop trailer.

Common lumper terms

• Lumper fee. The charge for the loading or unloading labor. It is a type of accessorial charge, billed on top of the line-haul rate.
• Lumper receipt. The proof that a lumper fee was paid. Carriers and brokers usually need it before they reimburse the cost. One broker's carrier help center, for example, asks for the receipt within 48 hours of delivery.^[6]
• Comchek. A payment method some brokers offer so the driver does not have to pay the lumper out of pocket. The same help center says it can provide an instant Comchek to pay a lumper fee.^[6]
• Driver assist. A load where the driver is expected to unload or help unload. In a 2003 federal appeals case, a leased owner-operator was assigned a "driver assist" load to a retail store, and the court noted that his lease said the driver would unload or assist in unloading.^[3]
• No-touch freight. Freight that needs "minimal or no physical handling by the driver," with dock workers at each end doing the loading and unloading, as ArcBest describes it.^[5] Touch freight is the opposite: the driver handles the cases.

Why it matters

The lumper question decides who touches the freight at delivery, who signs for it and who pays the labor. Shippers and carriers who know a receiver uses lumpers can put that in the rate confirmation before the truck is dispatched. Receivers that use lumpers should say so up front, so the driver is not surprised at the door. When the terms are unclear, the cost tends to land on whoever is standing at the dock, which is usually the driver.

Example

This is an illustrative scenario, not a real customer job. A carrier books a load of floor-loaded cases to a grocery distribution center. The receiver's appointment notes say that only its approved unloading service may unload. At the door, a lumper crew breaks down the cases and builds pallets to the DC's standard. The driver pays with a payment code from the broker, gets a lumper receipt with the facility, date, load number and amount, and sends it in with the signed proof of delivery. Who should bear that fee in the end is a question for who pays lumper fees.

Common confusions

• A lumper is not a driver's helper hired by choice. If a driver decides to pay for help that nobody required, the cost question is different from a receiver's rule. The statute is about help a shipper or receiver requires.^[2]
• Drivers may still unload. The federal rule does not ban unloading by drivers. In the 2003 case, the court said the statute does not prohibit all unloading by drivers, only coerced unloading, and that carriers and drivers are expected to agree in writing on who unloads.^[3]
• Lumper fee vs. detention. A lumper fee pays for labor. Detention pays for time the truck is held past the agreed free time. A slow unload can lead to both, billed separately.
• Lumping vs. devanning. Devanning is unloading an ocean container. It can be done by a lumper, a warehouse crew or a dock's paid service. The name of the task does not tell you who arranged it or who pays.

Frequently asked questions