Co driver gets a false log book citation but my employer is saying the violation is on "ME"

Hi everybody!
I am new to the forums here and want to say hello and introduce myself. I've been a CDL holder since april this year, I drive OTR for one of the large carriers and I absolutely love driving OTR. I have had a small hiccup with my new career and would like some input and thoughts from you guys.
Thank you in advance!

So my issue is this: recently while driving my company truck I was stopped by a police officer and got a level 3 inspection Report with a seatbelt violation and received a ticket for it. I had my seatbelt on but wore it under my left arm instead of over my left shoulder. On the ticket I received it does state that the belt was on me but not worn correctly. By the way the officer was talking like he was doing me a favor and only giving me the Civil ticket and not the criminal ticket(if he would have given me the criminal citation for the seatbelt it would actually have been a misdemeanor offence that would make me have to show up for a court date and possibly go to trial!!) So I sign the document and go on my way. A couple days later I am about to leave a shipper with a new load and get shut down by my company. I'm told I need to drop the load, go back into the line haul office and turn the paperwork In and let them know someone else will come get it. So I end up getting shut down and having to go park at a truck stop to figure out what the heck is going on. I am completely shocked that i am being shut down over a seatbelt being worn wrong and really did not have any clue this was as serious as it was. I am thinking that it's just a quick fix and I'll be back up and running soon enough. Well boy am I wrong! I'm not really getting clear answers from my DM as to what needs to happen Now to fix this so I call safety about it to find out what is going on and what's got to be done to get my truck rolling again and me driving. Safety now tells me I am fired!! I'm floored and upset and so disappointed in myself that I let this happen. Well my dm and I get along great and she is going to allow me to stay on the truck while my co driver drives solo loads and in the meantime we are being routed back to where my personal vehicle is so I can get all my things off the truck and go home. My vehicle is a 16 hour drive from my home and at that time we were 14 hours from where I was shut down at to my personal truck. I have heard that when a company fires you that people just get kicked off the truck wherever they happenned to be fired at with absolutely no help from these companies so I considered myself very lucky to have my dm not kick me off the truck and get me back to my personal vehicle.
In the meantime I am calling calling calling anybody I know to give me advice on what has to be done from here on out to try and get this ticket off my record, Of course hiring a lawyer is an option but an expensive one that I was wanting to try and bypass. In the meantime I'm calling the state where I had to ticket trying to reach the officer who wrote it and this guys supervisor always answers the phone and after I explained why I was trying to reach the cop his superior would not let me talk to him and eventually the guy stopped answering my calls altogether. I did borrow someone else's phone and called and the guy picked up when I did that and was able to get an email address out of him. So I emailed the officer but I never got a response from him.
Now I've been on the truck for 7 days shut down trying to get back to my personal vehicle and decide to start calling lawyers.
I try some of the national cdl ticket fixers that are advertised on the internet and after speaking to a few of them I just didnt like the fact that these guys spoke to me a total of 2 minutes or less and was offering a quick fix if I sent them a couple hundred bucks on the spot. I end up calling some local lawyers that are in the same county I received the ticket instead. I speak with a couple of lawyers who seem alot more interested in my problem than the guys I spoke to before who are advertised online only. The experience with these local guys was way better and I ended up being referred to this lawyer who handles the civil violations. Apparently the civil and criminal violations are quite different in the scope of their seriousness and not all lawyers will take cases that are just civil. In the end the one I was referred to actually knew the police officer personally. So whenever I found this out I knew I needed to get this man paid so i could get my job back.
I know this is a really long post and so far i havent mentioned anything about the actual title but i promise i am getting to that.
My lawyer was able to get my seatbelt violation amended to an equipment malfunction so the safety department with my company will now let me be rehired. It also makes my csa score change from a 21 pt score to a score of just 1 point! Awesome right!?!
Well no! So when I was pulled over my co driver was in the front seat. He was logged in the sleeper berth. He got a warning for false logbook data. He didnt get a ticket where hed ha e to go to court or pay any fine but it was written on the inspection that I got. Their are 2 different citations one listed with a "D" for driver which is the seatbelt and then a 2nd listed as "C" for codriver. My company is saying that the false logbook one is on me though! So what on earth do I do or can I do to get my company to recognize that This false logbook thing is not my issue? Or is it on me because I was driving and let him sit in the front? Has anyone ever had something like this happen. To them? I dont understand why his log book violation would have anything to do with me. My employer isnt saying that this log book warning will affect me in a negative way but I'm still wanting to figure out why it is on me and not my codriver.
So I think I've covered all my bases in my post now. Please let me know if anything similar has happenned to anyone out their and let me know what I can do to fix this.

Thanks
Nnnw

 

My question to you is why the hell would you want to stay at this place. Satan himself isn't as big an ####### as these people are.
Go get a better job...they will just screw you again in the future.

 

Are you still fired, if so, I would say it is affecting you in a negative way.
I do not know how the log violation works when it is someone else. As far as I know an inspection report , ticket, whatever has just one name on it, does the inspection sheet have his name on it, did he have to sign them? Like I said thatis a new one on me.
I do know a little about the seat belt, actually way more than I want to. They are now considered a safety violation, and insurance companies love them.
I got one in my pickup that didn't even include a fine, just a 15 dollar donation to the fire dept, BUT in three years just the insurance on one of my trucks is costing me 9 grand more.

 

I'm under contract with these guys so it's best for me to stay with them for right now until my contract is done. I know it will be very hard to stay with them without getting screwed ine the future but I cant pay off the contract to get hired elsewhere. They got me by the balls! Lol

 

Yes I am technically unemployed but my co went on hometime waiting for me and I'm waiting on the FMCSA to show the amendment has been applied. Until then im fired yes and when it goes through I'll be rehired immediately. But as far as the inspection report goes it has both mine and my codriver names on it. So it does show him as the receiver of the false log book thing and my company is STILL saying that his violation is on me and will be on my record with the company. Like it makes no sense whatsoever and that's why I am asking about it and has anyone ever heard of a company doing this before. My codriver is his own person and if dude wants to log into the sleeper and chill with me up front then whatever it's his logs not mine. But now after this company is saying his screw up is on me then you know my thoughts about what he does with his logs may have to change.

 

Does anyone know if these logbook violations give points towards csa score?

 

Say what?

You can get a CRIMINAL RECORD for wearing your seatbelt lopsided???


On another note, how is that geometrically possible?



Is he Shaq?!

THIS should roughly approximate a trooper's sight line as he approaches your vehicle (horrible internet pic but you get the idea). What the hell you were or weren't wearing while driving isn't really visible to him.

"I slipped my arm out of the belt to reach for my wallet" ---- DONE

Disprove that!

 

Yes, and the reason your company claims it is on you, is you must be considered the lead driver, and should have not let the codriver up in the seat.
I have been in a couple of heated arguements with dot over the very same thing, but have not ever been written up for it.
Falsedying logs, is not a good violation to be on your record, but since he is actually the one written up for it, it should not be on your record as far as law. It is just your company that is sticking you with it I THINK.
I am glad to see you think your contract means something and you should stick with them for the duration of it. It seems likeit means nothing at all to a lot of new guys, and they don't even start out with the plans of fulfilling it, but I don't know if I would hang with them or not if they want to play that game.