Today's Thoughts 5/12/11 I've Been Robbed. When will I ever learned. On more time I put myself in a position allowing myself to be suckered out of eighty bucks. Sometimes I don't think I will ever learn. I can see getting took once, but to keep doing it. I'm not going to say what that makes me. Every old time trucker knows exactly what has happened to me this morning. They have been through this all their trucking lives. Ok, for those that know, say it with me. Here we go.
After taking a load that requires a lumper on the receiving end. I was ensured the price for the unloading would be seventy bucks. After backing into the dock and dropping my trailer, I'm told that the price of unloading is one hundred and fifty bucks. Eighty bucks more then agreed upon when I took the load. Eighty bucks straight out of my pocket. Of course it's too early to call the agent. And if I want to wait, the next appointment to unload their freight is in about two weeks. So my choices are pay the eighty bucks or sit in the hot Florida sun until I decide to kick out the extra cash. Of course I could decide to unload it myself, but after two back surgeries unloading other people's freight in this same situation, I'm screwed. I'm not that young anymore and I'm certainly not willing to go through nine months plus years of pain. Nope. Not again.
Only one person to blame for this situation though and the hard fact is I have to understand is this. My getting took this morning is my fault. I know better than to book freight that requires me to pay a lumper. It always ends the same. The agent that has been booking freight into any dock for years gives you a low number that it will cost you to unload up front. Then in the money equation for the load he adds an extra fifty and tells you can keep the extra for yourself. Bump the dock and instead of making that extra fifty, it cost you an extra eighty. Now I'm guessing that no driver before me has ever called up and explained the true cost of unloading this same freight that he books every week into this dock. So I'm quite sure it is just a mistake on his part. Years ago I stopped doing this. But this week I found myself doing something other than my norm and needed to fill in a few days and make some house payment money while I wait for my trailer to be repaired. Well, this being a short run, I just worked for half of what my profit should have been. At least it was not for free. This problem has plagued this industry for as long as I can remember though. Drivers that are forced out of cash or free labor, it's nothing new. My guess is that it will never stop. I know I'm back to my rule though.
Seems like every time a break one of my hard learned rules, I always end up paying for it in the long run. The rule I broke today is never ever haul freight that requires a lumper to unload. The good thing about all this is I wont make this mistake again anytime soon. Being an owner operator I can book my freight accordingly. But I'm thinking there are still a lot of company drivers out there though that have no choice in the matter. They are still being bilked out of millions in either cash or forced slave labor. Refuse to get the job done and they will find all kinds of stuff on their DAK report making it impossible for them to get another job in the trucking industry. I know one thing, I sure will be glad to get my trailer back so I can go haul the freight that puts money in my pocket, not someone else's. I don't mind making them a little, but somewhere along the way I'd like to be able to support my family to.
UPDATE UPDATE ..On my story this morning. I was able to contact the agent before they finished unloading my load a few minutes ago. The price to unload has dropped to an even one hundred dollars. That's what was originally agreed upon for the lumper fee. I'm still not sure why I was told I would only be charged seventy dollars though. At least in this case I no longer feel I was screwed. One hundred is what I was paid for the unloading. I thought about scrapping this whole storey but the fact is that I still hear just about every day, another storey just like this one. So I'm going to go ahead and let it ride just as I originally wrote it. We still have a long ways to go when it comes to being forced out of free labor or just plain hard cash from the drivers in the trucking industry. Maybe I should have written a storey about handling a problem like this staying calm and with respect. That might have been a thing. But I'm way too lazy to write two storey's in one day. Eh!, maybe tomorrow. See ya.
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