Going back to OTR with Schneider Lease Purchase!

Over the past couple days I've made a couple things happen.

I routed myself as close to Chicago as I could, though Spring Valley is still a distance away. I crisscrossed the Midwest and south up and down the past couple days. Delivered in Wisconsin today, picked up and currently in Cedar Rapids. Delivering to Kansas City then headed to Spring Valley. From there I'll deadhead to the Gary OC and get some laundry and packing done.

I had also recieved my new estimate from a Chicagoland body shop. Old estimate from the Salt Lake FL dealer wouldn't work, as I wasn't getting it fixed there and the Chicagoland FL dealers don't do body repair.. which I find unacceptable. I was referred to this shop by the Gary OC shop and he quoted $1970 something. Sent to my insurance and they'll arrange payment less my $100 deductible (to be refunded when the other drivers insurance pays up.)

We're all on the same page, so around 3:15am Monday morning I'll bobtail the truck to the shop, lock the doors, pop the keys in the mailbox and take my Uber to Midway airport. I depart at 6:45am and I'll arrive in San Diego, my wife will pick me up and I'll be there til Wednesday night, when we drive home to Utah. Thursday I'll get my splint replaced with a cast and I'll fly back to Chicago that night, to be back to work Friday morning. That assumes the truck is out of the shop by then.

 

Well today was a bit of a nightmare..

I started in Davenport IA to deliver to Spring Valley IL. I reached my exit and turned right. As I did, I looked left then right for cross traffic in the intersection I was entering, but failed to see the stop sign on my end until it was too late. I hit the brakes but went through the stop, thankfully hitting nobody as the intersection was empty. However, Illinois State Police saw me run the stop and pulled me over 100ft from the driveway of the Walmart warehouse.

He was a nice guy. I told him straight up I was looking for cross traffic and didn't see the stop sign OR the flashing red light above it until it was too late. Stupid move on my part, but he said he'd give me a written warning because the intersection was empty and not a ticket. Whew I thought. He checked out my logs, looked at truck and trailer registration, then finally asked for my license. I figured I was a free man. Until..

He said something was funky with my license. He said my CDL was canceled.. and it all came rushing back to me.

I got my new physical from Schneider during orientation week. But in the hustle and bustle of moving things from the apartment in Phoenix to the storage, packing for the move to Utah, getting the house presentable for potential renters, and trying to figure out my financial situation with bill after bill going late without any paychecks, I had forgotten to submit my physical to the state of Arizona. It had honestly slipped my mind and I was oblivious to it. Basically since I started this journey, I had been driving with a CDL that's as good as suspended.

In addition to the written stop sign warning, the officer wrote me a citation for my CDL that landed me my first ever OOS violation. With that came a mandatory court date for March 11th, and being unable to drive out of Spring Valley into Chicago at all.

So after taking a few minutes to compose myself to the reality that I'm a colossal dunce, I called SFI maintenance, who dispatched a tow truck for me, to take me straight to the Gary OC. 100mi, 2hrs and $900 after he arrived in spring valley, the tow truck brought me to the Gary OC. I made it, but now my to do list has added some new bullet points.

First, now I have to pay the govt money I don't have to resolve an issue I could have fixed with a 15 minute visit to the DMV.
Second, how will Schneider take this? What kind of repercussions can I expect from them?
Third, if I'm not allowed to drive the truck while OOS, how can I drive it bobtail to the repair shop 15mi down the road? Can I legally do that? Even on personal conveyance?
Fourth, if I were to fax my current valid medical to the state of AZ, would my license be reinstated within a reasonable amount of time or would I have to stay off the truck until my mandatory court date in a month?

 

So what I'll need to do is find someone else to drive the truck to the offsite shop for me?

 

If I've received mail from AZ, it most likely went to my house which is currently rented, wouldn't make sense to receive it in UT. And Schneider hasn't sent me anything about it. My wife checks my mail every day and nothing of that nature ever showed up. For all I knew I was as good as gold