Am I the bad guy here? Refusing to drive junk!

DOT, Kamway, or New Legend might be a good fit for you. Each have well-maintained equipment. The latter two frequently pick up loads out of General Mills Stockton, so hometime would not be an issue. Home Depot dc is also close by.

You are definitely in the right about being concerned about those sketchy steer tires. Your life, and that of those who drive near your rig, depend on those steer tires not failing.

 

If I was your age and wanted a local or semi local..maybe away for a night or two. I would check out Swire Coca Cola. I’ve been to a bunch of their locations on the west coast..see if one is near you.
Personally I’d be considering moving to Draper Utah if I could work out of their location there.

I’m not talking about being a multi stop store delivery driver…unless you like that idea. Out of Swire Draper I see the line haul drivers pulling double 53’s? With sleeper cabs..
Renton, WA they have long wheel base tractors day cabs with a drop axle and the trailer has a couple extra drops as well.
I know for a fact that they hire even with zero experience. Was talking with a driver who was backing the truck into a dock and he said it was his first day..thought he was joking but after a couple dozen pull ups and a couple aborted setups it was obvious! Nice guy who was actually in disbelief that they threw him the keys. He got his license through them also.

I can’t say what the pay and benefits are but for me it’s about having a job that I enjoy to the point that I never need an alarm clock to wake up.

Something like Swire Coca Cola is what you need for some type of job security for you and your new family. Your current job sounds like it would be a perfect fit for an old miserable divorced guy..

Good luck, hope I at least got the wheels turning in your head.
If you learn to just accept what you have now you’ll end up miserable and eventually divorced.

 

Same situation occurs everywhere… it will happen at the next place and the place after that.
been saying it a lot lately.. Trucking attracts some of the dumbest, bottom of the barrel people

if there’s ever a mass dunning-Krueger study they should take candidates from the trucking industry.

 

Your instincts are true and clean in this particular matter. It's healthy to question the legality of your equipment. It's disturbing that your company is willing to run with such faulty equipment.

 

Rent it, charge accordingly and that’ll be your retirement in a nutshell. You can claim 75% of the rent as income and get another “primary residence” mortgage.