LUMPERS: THE BIGGEST RACKET IN TRUCKING

I've said this before, but they might as well call lumpers extortionists for the amount of money they charge.  On Sunday morning, at their first stop in West Sacramento, after checking in, Craig was informed on what the lumper fee would be.  At that point in time, Craig wished he would of thought about getting a ComCheck when they received the dispatch on Friday afternoon, but then, they had the two bad tires to deal with, and being a self confessed "can only do one thing at a time male",  any thoughts of thinking ahead would have been my job, but I was home and not on the truck, so that left Craig in a bind.

Needless to say, when he was told the fee would be $250.00 he had to do some quick thinking.  Luckily, Craig worked in the West Sacramento area for almost 30 years, so he knew there was a mini mart not too far away.  Off on foot he went, and arriving at the ATM machine, then finding out it would only spit out $200.00 dollars.  Needing more money, he went on the hunt for another location with an ATM and found one at a gas station further down the road, but their ATM was not working.

Never one to give up, he spied a WalMart down the street and headed there, only to stumble across a credit union with a working ATM.  Loaded down with enough funds to pay off what we are calling "the new west coast mob", he slowly made his way back to the truck in plenty of time to pay the fee and then wait around a few more hours while they unloaded their portion of the meat from the trailer.  By 1pm they were finally on their way with a quick stop in French Camp, CA to scan paperwork, and then continue south to Wheeler Ridge where they stayed the night.

Craig had the early morning duties this morning, arising at 2:30am and driving into Bell Gardens, CA for the last delivery of this dispatch.  Here he found the lumper fee a bit more reasonable, at only $40.00, which he was able to pay from what was left over from yesterdays run on the ATM's in West Sacramento.  You can see from the pictures that this particular receiver was tucked away off the street, and Craig had no issues finding it or backing into the dock.

 Immediately after going empty, they were given a dispatch to pick up a load of bananas in San Diego Tuesday morning.  We both agreed that it was a great load, no only because it would allow them to avoid the heavy holiday traffic leaving LA today, but also will have them delivering in Puyallup, WA on Friday morning.  We are pretty confident that they will then get an overnight load from Puyallup into Spokane Saturday morning, which fits into Craig's plan for some home time before heading back out until vacation time in October.  You can bet I'll be waiting for him Saturday to whisk him home!