Equipment issues/when to refuse equipment

You must judge if you CAN change how the company takes care of trucks or not.

If you keep talking to the company about the conditions of the trucks either you are talking to the wrong person, saying the wrong things, or company is not going to change.

Only you know the full story, not us. Each time you drive onto public roads the truck & driver are required to be DOT legal. You will be held responsible for the condition if DOT inspects the truck. There isn't a "give this ticket to your boss" ticket. You get an entry on your PSP for any violation. Maybe your company gets it trouble also, but you will be penalized. Ask me how I know.

Do you want to get your 1 year and leave, or bet the company will change before you get put out of service? I worked for a carrier briefly that essentially had no shop when my truck was parked. So anything I wrote up would not be serviced or repaired before I drove it. All of my screaming & yelling could never change what was causing my truck not to get repaired.

 

Another dilly of a pickle, darned if you do, darned if you don't. Remember, you are a driver, an employee of the company, and it's not your truck, the owner should be mostly to blame for an OOS. What I'd do, is make sure you jot down in writing the violations you have noticed and submitted to compliance keeping copies with you to show. I believe you may be off the hook, but will probably need a new job. I'd play the idiot on this one, if they put you OOS, I'd grab a taxi and say "your truck is impounded at so and so weigh station with the keys in the fuel tank". I wonder if that would work? Are you legally bound to an impounded truck if you quit?

 

You should have no problem finding a construction company looking for a driver this time of year.

 

what issues and be specific.

 

You can also take routes that avoid weigh stations. I would just quit personally. If anything bad happens guess what, no one’s going to care how many bad trucks you reported. All they’re going to care about is the bad one YOU were driving.

 

When you drive for these types of outfits you have to CYA. Finish the year if you can & then bail. Driving junk makes you a better driver. Ask me how I know.

 

Have you been pulled into a weigh station for an inspection in one of their trucks? If so, how did it go? From the way you described it, it sounds like you're worried they might give you a clunker and a regional run at the same time, but that they haven't yet. Is there a specific reason you're worried about declining the truck if and when that happens?

 

It's very simple. If the issue renders the truck, or trailer, unsafe or illegal to operate, you refuse to drive/pull it. Period! I've had to tell more than one snot nosed DM or planner if they wanted to run illegal and risk their license, let me know and I'll leave the keys in the seat for them. Otherwise, ####. As long as I'm responsible, I'm the captain of the ship and it won't move until I say it moves. That said, the slippery slope, and I'm just as guilty as anyone, is when you drive it with a faulty ABS sensor, for example, by just unplugging the thing until it's convenient to fix it. The issue there is you do it once and they'll expect you to do it every time something comes up.

Bottom line, most of the time planners and/or DMs don't give two squats about safety and maintenance unless impedes the load. Then, they suddenly find their moral, high road, everything by the book compass.