Is It Time to Reform the Unloading of Semi Trailers?
Carriers can be held responsible for semi trailer unloading. Given the perceived truck driver shortage, it may be time to change this. Wasting drivers' time should no longer be taken for granted. The 14 hour rule combined with lengthy unload times can limit productivity. It appears that the 14 hour rule is not going anywhere. The solution is to increase operational efficiency and decrease dock time.
Back in the day, lumpers would line the streets in front of warehouses. They attempted to get truckers to hire
them. The truckers' goal was to find a good lumper at a reasonable price. The carrier might develop a relationship with a good lumper. Sometimes, the relationship was between the consignee and the lumper. You would get a receipt from the lumper. You had no idea if the lumper was who he said he was. Neither did the IRS. That is one of the reasons that the street lumper has given way to organized lumper services.
There is no guarantee of quality service. I remember driving most of the night. I arrived just in time for my 06:00 appointment. The load was loaded late, but got delivered on time. The lumpers did not show up. The consignee called them. They arrived at 06:30 smelling of alcohol. They tried assuring me that they were sober. They told me that they had gone straight home at 02:00 when the bar closed.
The consignee gave me 3 choices. I could use the lumpers. This is a good time to remember that as an owner operator I could be held liable in case one of these two goof balls got hurt. I could wait a day for them to sober up and face the downtime plus a late delivery penalty. I could unload it myself. I unloaded it myself.
Technically it is illegal for the consignee to coerce drivers into hiring a lumper service. Today there is usually a mutual benefit relationship between the lumper service and the consignee. You pay their prices or you do it yourself. If their prices are exorbitant it doesn't matter. It is rare that they let an outside lumper on the dock. They may give a driver a poorly maintained manual pallet jack. That driver may need to pull pallets weighing over a ton each across a wet reefer floor. That driver is risking injury while the lumpers are given fork lifts.
In one case a grocery store chain required proof of $1,000,000.00 in liability insurance to allow truckers on the dock. OOIDA sued and won in that case. Consignees can put up barriers to encourage drivers to use the lumper service. The line between encouragement and coercion is filled with shades of gray.
The solution is simple. Transfer the unloading responsibility from the carrier to the shipper. The shipper can use whatever equipment they have to unload the semi trailers. They can use an outside lumper service. Here is what I think would happen. Shippers and consignees would cooperate. Shippers would load semi trailers the way the consignees want it. Overall efficiency would improve and we could all become safer and more productive.