My adventure with Carolina Cargo

I thought I replied to this already lol. No the driver did not getting arrested. The local (CA) police officer stated that since it happened on private property that he did not have the authority to arrest the driver. The officer completed an accident report and called in to highway patrol to flag that truck lmao

 

Alright guys I am about 7 hours away from Columbia, SC to drop off this load. This should just be a drop and then pick up an empty trailer to head back to the terminal. Our truck is due for maintenance and our rear ac has stopped working. We think the blower went out so hopefully they get that fixed for us. I should be able to get home later today to spend sometime with my family!!!

 

So much for the long hometime. Several miles before we arrived at the terminal, dispatch sent us a message about another driver leaving a late load at the terminal and asking us if we could deliver to Spokane, Washington. I didn't have a problem with taking the late load but I still wanted to go home for a little bit. When we got to the terminal, they gave us a tractor that just got out of the shop. Everything was decent with the tractor but what about the trailer. The trailer has scratches, dings, plenty of damage, and the trailer doors weren't closed all the way due to a shifted load. URGH. We spent an additional 2 hours at the yard getting the shifted load taken care of. I left the terminal around 2pm and stayed home for a good 10 hours before returning to leave out. We left Rock Hill, SC around 3am on Monday morning and the trip started out very well from SC to WA, then it happened.......

I'm driving and feeling pretty well as I see the sign for the Spokane, WA weigh station and I'm thinking this won't be any problem as I have gone through scales and we run 30-40k so I should be ok as usual. I come to the stop sign before the scale and stop then I crept across the scale at 3mph. I looked at the sign.....green, green, green, driver park and bring in your paperwork. WHAT!!! OH NO what could I have possibly done wrong!!! I'm nervous at this point. The DOT officer didn't give me a chance to set my brakes before he was nearing my door. "I'm going to inspect your truck now, keep your lights on and follow my directions". He exclaimed. We check my lights and then he went around he banged on all 18 of my tires with his hammer. "Driver you have a flat tire". Again he exclaimed. I get out and look and he's absolutely right, my tire was very flat and I'm thinking how in the world did this happen. He finishes my level 2 inspection inside the building and writes me a $127 ticket for the flat tire and places me oos.

EVENTS LEADING TO THE ABOVE
My co-driver/trainer had a walkaround inspection completed by a dot officer in Iowa less than 10 hours earlier and everything checked out. I'm the night driver and when we switched midway through Montana, I did a thorough pretrip inspection and everything was good. I also completed an interim inspection at a "brake check area" right as I entered Idaho and once again everything was good.

So as I'm reliving all of my inspections and speaking to my co-driver about it nothing could be possible but a leak. We call Love's to come out for air and possibly a tire. After an hour, the technician discovers that the valve stems were not replaced when the new tires were put on at our terminal and he replaced the valve stem and it solved the leak. He attempted to just put air into the tire with the old valve stem on and it leaked from 100psi-90psi in less than 5 minutes. Wow this made me feel better as I knew that I did everything possible to ensure that my truck and trailer was in proper condition at all times before, during, and after driving.

WHY DID I WRITE ALL OF THIS
Now here is the real problem. Since it was equipment failure and our company shop not putting on new valve stems with new tires, I have spoken with safety and maintenance about the company paying my $127 ticked and yet I haven't gotten anywhere. They are still trying to place the blame on ME. Any advice will be greatly appreciated

 

Thanks that is true about face to face talks lol. I think I'll just eat this and learn from this experience

 

Alright guys we're at the TA in Hudson, WI getting our AC fixed. The condenser was leaking so that is being replaced just north of $700. Right now we're on a wine load from Washington heading to New York. Now our bills say that this load is going to Syracuse but we have been dispatched to Syosset. The broker will let us know tomorrow as to which is our destination. After we leave this TA we'll be just a little over 1000 miles from Syracuse which for us is just 1 day. We will see how this company handles the tolls that we have to cross as they have not advised us yet. There are small things about this company financially that is aggravating to a driver but that comes with this industry. With our AC not working for the last couple of days, my trainer and I have gotten into it a few times. I know that the heat was the problem so hopefully we'll be good once we hit the road again. My first paycheck on 6-17 was $286.08 this is the $300 "bonus" that you're paid after you complete your first trip.

 

Hope yall are enjoying the 4th!!! We're starting our 3rd trip which should end my training period if all goes well. Our second trip had a lot of difficulties which trucking presents but those experiences are priceless. I got a few hours home this morning from 1am-7am now we're on a walgreens load heading to Waxahachie, TX. Our delivery time is 8am tomorrow morning so we should be on time. Drive safely guys!!!!!