On October 15, 2001 at approximately 11:45 am, I pulled into the parking area intended for trucks loading out of Kansas City Cold Storage.  I checked in with the shipper and was told that they’d call on CB channel 1 when they were ready to load me.  Hours went by.  After at least 5 hours I checked back with them and was told it would be 6-8 more hours.  I slept for several hours and then absolutely had to leave or risk kidney failure.  The restroom they offered was the filthiest pigsty I’ve ever seen.  I went a mile or two up the road, found a convenience store / truckstop and immediately turned around to return to the warehouse.  I heard “Sunflower” over the CB radio and I asked them to repeat.  The voice said that I had “left too soon” and that if my pick up number was #543, they were looking for me to load me.   I thought it strange that someone had come to the lot looking for me.  All day I’d heard the shipper call trucks over the CB radio.  When someone didn’t answer their call, the shipper continued to call out via CB radio - they never came outside to get anyone.  Even though this did “feel” wrong, they had given my pick up number, so I accepted that it was legitimate.

I said I was only a mile away and would be pulling back in momentarily.  I was on Highway 9 southbound and exited at 3^rd Street, which put me directly beside the docks.  I noticed several men outside, and one motioned me to stop as he approached.  He said my pick up number was ready and that I needed to turn onto the street to the left, to be positioned for the next open dock.  He also said they charged to load and it would be $60.00.  He wanted me to go to the truck stop to get the money right away, but I refused.  I told him that after I had backed in I would drop the trailer and leave to get money, as well as take care of some personal needs.  I made the left turn and sat with my 4 way hazard lights flashing.  He said I should remain there for a moment and he would come back to advise me of the which dock door would be mine.  He said he thought I would take the dock door where a Prime truck was, but that he needed to check this. 

As I waited for his return, I qualcommed in and asked:

“This #$#$#%@ expects $60.00 for loading, is this normal here, does the company pay for it?  Thx, RB

The response I received was:

“Yea, the company will pay for it.”

I was sitting in a No Parking zone and had it not been for this, I most likely would have gone up on the dock myself to verify information.  (Comment:  If you've read the journal, you might understand why I was especially nervous about the No Parking zone...)  The man returned quickly and said I would get Prime’s door once he left, but that they would not start loading me if the loading fee was not paid first.  I became exasperated and threw $40.00 at him, (all that I had) and told him that would have to suffice for the time being.  In just a few more minutes, Prime vacated the dock door and I backed in.  I went up on the dock to find everyone was gone on break.  A couple of guys were sitting on the docks outdoors eating.  I asked if they knew of this lumper/dock person and I described him.  They said yes, that the guy was around there often.  The one man left working on the dock informed me that they didn’t charge for loading, nor did they require the driver to do any loading.  I was fairly sure at that point that I’d been “had”.  I received permission to drop the trailer and went in search of a shower.

Upon returning, the dock supervisor confirmed that I had been ripped off.  He requested my name, address and phone number.  He said that he and his boss had suspected this guy had done this before but couldn’t prove it.  This man had occasionally worked as a lumper on their docks.  They believed he was currently banned from the dock.  He said the person would definitely be banned from this point on.  He said he had given no order for me to go into the dock door and that was entirely the scheme of the lumper. 

It is very obvious that the lumper had full run of the facilities, even though the shipper admittedly knew this person had been problematic.  If this shipper did not actually aid in this scheme, at the very least, this shipper is guilty of severe negligence.

This type of driver abuse should absolutely not be tolerated.  While I now see steps that I could have taken to avoid this, the lumper had this scam figured out to a “T” and one that the shipper even acknowledges to have occurred in the past.  This shipper had a duty to at least inform drivers of the possibility of the scam artist’s possible attempt to rip them off.  This job can be hard enough, but when you cannot even trust the shipper, you are really in a lot of trouble.