Advise

Most intermodal outfits do that; bad tires, lights not working.
I'd change jobs in that situation.
What type job do you prefer?
Do have endorsements?
Did you attend cdl school?

 

Why did you sign a Driver Inspection Pretrip and take a tractor with known defects serious enough for either tickets, inspection or even OOS?

If you find a tractor that has defects, turn it into the shop. And either wait for it to be fixed and reinspect, mechanic signs with you and off you go. Or you find another tractor, inspect that... no defects? Off you go then.

You cannot be taking vehicles onto the street with expired registration. My own tahoe's registration expires this month at the last day, the tags must be renewed before I take THAT onto the street. The Owner needs to get the registration renewed.

If he cannot, refuses, wont etc. Then the owner has to be made to understand he is down a truck.

Possibly be out a driver too if he did not fix his own mess at that level. As a driver it is not your problem to go renew a registration to a company truck. You take the paper and bring it to the owner, boss, office permit person etc and tell them such a such is expired can you get me a new one for that tractor. If they wont, cannot etc. Or make excuses, understand that tractor is going nowhere today period. End. dot.

You might be out a days work. But if he is paying 800 salary? Each week? Who cares?

The owner does and should care that his trucks are legal, without defects and running.

This is one reason I got out of hauling seacans way back at 21. Too many days Ive taken trucks out which had everything under the sun wrong with them. Oh it's good. Run it to Norfolk through DC. It does not make a good impression and sometimes flat breaks down doing it. I remember a father and son that did just that near Doswell at 5 am from Baltimore to Norfolk. The result was a 10 hour burn in the hot sun. They were really sunburned and parched by the time that breakdown was resolved later into the night.

Anyway... you are on a salary. If you don't have a legal truck today? Oh well... see you tomorrow or when they DO have the things fixed and the registration renewed OR when they issue you a legal truck. However long or short that is.

If they turn around and say you are fired, hopefully you have documented the problems naming names, times, dates, unit numbers and problems like expired registration and vehicle defects. Chances are Texas will issue you unemployment while you look for another trucking company. IF the previous owner trashes your DAC etc, simply write a rebuttal into that file of yours.

Eventually this will be smoothed over and forgotten or retained as a lesson.

SCALEHOUSES ARE NOT the best places to be standing there being told you cannot drive that truck, you are being fined for things you did not get to shop and have them fix and so on etc. Follow me?

Some things you can and should do as a professional driver. As the agent of your company YOU are the first line defense in making sure that your truck isnt going to kill or hurt someone today. Like maybe my family who knows nothing about this stuff.

Ive said enough. There was a time in my life I would run it, hell with it. DOT make sure that with large enough tickets, OOS and so on that got rid of. Ive gone the other way now. If that thing has a expired registration? Oh well. No truck. You have another valid new registration boss? No? Call me when you get it.

What happens from there depends on the employer. You might not have a job. But you turn that into the State and let them deal with it.

Trucking isnt for everyone. And if you are running a truck that isnt legal or has problems you are just as bad as your boss. No wonder there are jokes on the internet with 1000 volvos in Chicago that never gets fixed and should be burned.

 

It's your cdl don't mess it up for anyone

 

LEAVE!

You have one life and there are other ways to get your experience safely.

Also...

Warnings go on your DAC... so at least they did at the companies where I've worked.

 

Warnings?

I would have told the inspector that it is doubtful that it will get fixed, and see what he does then.

 

Well, that's your call. Many companies won't hire you when they see you get tickets for unsafe equipment and it does show up on checks. Someone on here can explain how that works.

 

There are times I think we agree. And times we disagree for a variety of reasons.

I lean towards agreeing with you on this one. But the last time I advocating going thru a inspection to cook a bad truck with a bunch of fix its; I caught a certain amount of broken chain.

In the small family paving company I ran with, my first day after hire consisted of physically pulling both duals on the 4 drive axles off that mack dump under a shade tree, physically installing new bearings and putting them duals back in. Wheels, tires and axle and all. I think we had maybe a block of wood, a hammer a 5 ton hand jack and a couple of stands to work with. A real basic place.

The reason was explained to me a few months later after I had proven my worth, the previous driver was not too happy with the growing number of flaws on that superliner 500 and whistleblew the outfit to DOT. The boss had a choice. Shoot the whistleblower, spend 4000 dollars on parts or run as usual and hope for the best. To my benefit and his, he spent the parts. We got to put them on ourselves.

There are times I think about that little dump truck out of all of the trucks Ive had in my life and I gotta tell you that one had alot of love due to it in my time. Probably because of that engine it had in it. They dont build them that way anymore.

I have a burial trip coming up to arlington at some point in the near future, I'll stop by the farm and check the storage shed for it. If it's there, I'll take a spin and a snap. We've enough farm for that.

 

With no experience finding work isn't easy. Stay far from the mega carriers. You will make mistakes as a new driver and they will ruin you over it. If I were you, I'd be looking at a place that would take me BUT also takes care of the equipment. Floor load jobs come immediately to mind. Think food service companies. Once your CSA score gets too bad nobody will hire you no matter how much experience you may or may not have. Remember, you're the one who has to live with it on your conscience if you hurt, maim or kill somebody's kid out on the road.