So how bad did I screw up? Bobtailing, family emergency.

Well, technically , since you are bringing equipment back to the yard it's not PC anymore. But seriously, who gives a rip? If you don't want it on your Dac, contest it. Keep contesting it. Make the safety cow work to keep it there. Then get a job where it won't be a problem.

Most companies only care that you didn't get a ticket.

 

Sorry for your loss

 

You were not driving PC, so the people that said to do that are wrong. You did in fact drive illegally by breaking your hos, and safety guy was right about calling you on it. Expecting safety to edit the logs in your favor is ridiculous.
Now all that being said, screw the law. family comes first.
Also, one log violation might mean you can't get hired my some crappy mega, but anyone you would actually want to work for will not care about once..

 

But he was bobtailing home which is usually Line 5 or off duty driving, it looks like his company doesn't want drivers bobtailing around an so they don't allow it, but there's nothing illegal about bobtailing home.

 

Bobtailing home sounds like PC to me.

I'm sure he got some hours back before taking it to Freightliner.

 

No, he was bobtailing back to the yard to return the truck.

 

One of us misread it.

 

I thought he was bobtailing home and and it broke so then he limped it to a Freightliner shop and left it

 

I might have misread that. But, once he started taking it to the shop, it's on duty driving. Again, no decent company will get worked up about it.

 

Omg, he was bobtailing home. After getting home and taking his stuff out he planned to return it to the company drop yard. Due to the malfunction he will instead take it to Freightliner after going home and taking his stuff out.