So if I refuse a load due to a failed pretrip ......

I’m not sure if the argument you are presenting is a red herring or false dichotomy, but this is NOT an either-or situation. There’s other ways to deal with problems than stomping your feet and yelling “no”.

The first step is finding the problem. Well done.
The second step is to find a couple of solutions that work for everyone and manage your managers into a solution that gets the wheels rolling and you back to earning.

During training, one of the things I drill into my employees is that I don’t want to hear about problems without also hearing about what they are going to do to fix them. A drivers pay doesn’t come from driving miles, it comes from signed BOL’s.

 

BRO WTF. I get you want a clean recoord, psp, MVR, dingle berry wipe, but cmon. man the F up and get on down the road. jesus H christ.

Werner ####ed me so hard sent me to a pick up pre loaded trailer that tandems wouldnt slide. I said this is my last load bring it to drop yard. did I bring it back to the truck stop nah. I manned up and brought that ##### through the night with the tandems back. i didnt give a #### I was going home. man up jesus christ man the #### up

 

I told my wife after 8 years we did it baby. Get the Red panties on We own everything we need. RENT?!?!? cmon man. NEXT! Topped out as a Company Driver and said BZZZZT bye bye to this industry. Yet I still come on here to give my 2 cents. Stay safe!

 

I will, just send me all your banking info so I can direct deposit it.

 

If it's missing a license plate - well, I don't know, never had this happen.

I'd call the company and have them send me whatever trailer registration paperwork to prove that it is theirs and legal I guess. Or email a temp tag you can print out and bag up and attach - or . . . I don't know. Expend every possible avenue before refusing the load.

Your handle is Money Hungry Trucker. I was Money Hungry once too, and I'd find every safe and legal way to get that money trailer trucking.

 

But your thing mah gigger says you're money hungry?

 

Actually, the companies pay comes from the signed BOL and the drivers pay comes from the miles.

 

Yes, that's what I would say. I had it happen to me once. Ran the load, dropped it empty at the yard, put it OOS so they could get a plate on it, grabbed a different empty, kept rolling, no problem.

Yes, this is my position. Did you get a violation? No, or you would be complaining about that.

Did you get written up for your hypothetical violation? No, you didn't, except in your daydream about what might happen.

So how many DOT violations do you have? None, right? The real question is, what are you going to tell your wife and kids when you have no pay because you pissed off the load planners for refusing to run with a trailer that was perfectly safe? (I mean, I've never heard of a wreck that was caused because a trailer was missing a license plate.)

If this sort of thing (missing plates, marker lights out, etc.) is a regular occurrence there, work on finding a different job and run the loads meanwhile.

If you're picking up trailers all the time with real safety issues (flat tires, leaking hubs, no brakes, etc.), make them fix them before you run them and hurry up to get out of there.

By the way, I've gotten a few equipment violations over the years, but the only write ups I've gotten were at a company where the manager communicated by leaving write ups in your box at the yard. I found a new job in under a week after being there three months and figuring out that's how it was after the second silly write up.