No food! No water or bathroom and expected to stay in truck

Oh well Oregon got me today as soon as I entered the state on 82. Did a level 2 and I failed. Let me explain a little of what went on today. last night I pull into the Sumner terminal and need to get a new tire to replace the spare that was on my drives.

The mechanic at the shop was really nice and did the job. I asked him when he put the spare back in the holder to make sure he put my clip back on. Get up the next morning and deliver to Costco and pick up a new trailer loaded down the street going to Utah. Well finally I might have a decent day.

Well I knew that on this load I would either have to take a 34 in Pendleton Oregon or wait until 12AM on Saturday to get 11 hours back and then the next day get another 11 back and still get the load there on time.

So I get to exit one and the prepass starts going crazy with red. Pull into the scales and inch my way onto the scale and the light turns red for me to stop. Then I noticed the guy come out and look between my truck and trailer.

I get the pull around sign and told to bring in all my paperwork. Get in there and I am wondering why and found out real quick that he pulled me around because my spare was not secure.

Well it was when I left this morning but apparently the clip was never put on by the mechanic so the chain found it's way loose. He checks my logs and kept asking me about when I was in San Antonio about me dropping a trailer then going off duty and then coming back on duty and hooking to one an hour later.

I told him I went into the break room and they did not have my load ready. I said isn't that what the paper at the front of my book says that I have permission to go off duty for breaks? Then he said yes after seeing it.

So we stroll on outside so he can inspect the truck. I had no worries because I checked both the truck and the trailer out before I left. Well we get to the lights on the trailer and he said your ABS and your side markers are not working.

Well they where working when I left this morning. So we go back inside and he fills out the form noting 3 violations::

Failure to secure vehicle equipment
ABS malfunct lamps not working
Inoperable required lamp side marker on both sides

Then he explained to me that I should never ever trust someone else to do anything. You are the one responsible for that tire being secure and if that tire would have come off you could have killed my family or someone.

Talk about making me feel bad! he said that the ticket was $450 but this time he will let me slide with a warning. I was like thank you! So I pack up all my things and he said you are out of service until you secure the tire.

I go out and this time I make sure the chain will not come off. Poor other driver in there was not as lucky as me as he got a ticket for being over weight. So he finally lets me go and on the way out he said where are you planning to shut down. I said pendleton.

He said make sure you do because you are almost at your 70. Man I was sweating bricks while he was looking at my logs. I thought for sure that he was going to find the ones where I went over my 70 two weeks ago that Swift informed me of.

So I go and pull out of there and I will be #### my ABS and side markers came on and have stayed on every since. What's up with that? They quit working when I get an inspection but they work when I did my pre-trip and now.


So I learned today to never trust a mechanic always double check that could have cost me $450. I don't understand why that spare is even on my truck it will never pass inspection. I tried to get another one at the shop but they would not give me one. They just said I cannot believe they put that on your truck.

So now I sit and wait until I have hours to run. I averaged out my miles today and I have averaged 2900 miles a week. I am always hitting my 70 so I have no idea how not to do this and keep the miles I am getting. remember I have only been solo for a little over a month and I took four days off. Well three technically but I got a free day on that Monday because I got Un loaded early. So I was off last week from Monday to Thursday.

I just came back from time off Friday afternoon and I hit my 70 earlier today. So any pointers will help as I hate sitting!

 

Yea I checked the pigtail and everything seems to be OK. So what you are saying is if I have the blinkers on the side then the only time the light comes on is when I use the turn signal?

The ABS light should only come on when what a issue happens with ABS? Right now I have the ABS side markers coming on and the sidemarker turn signals work properly.

Yea the tire that was my fault for not double checking that the mechanic secured it with my clip. Like they say you learn something new everyday. I never looked at the spare because I did not think I had too once it was secured. Now I know it should be checked everyday just to be sure when doing a pretrip.

That was one expensive ticket if he did not give me a warning. Yea I don't know why he mentioned the 70 because I was fully aware that I would have to stop in Pendleton.

This was the very first trip I actually had time to plan it out. Now I just got to keep myself out of the Wildhorse Casino right next door but their dinner is so so tempting.....

Thank you for the advice on removing the logs. I have every one of them in there from the time I started... Now I will only have 7 days.

 

Yea he could have seen the mistake. He was a really nice guy and it helped that we where both from almost the same area in Texas. So I call onroad and they told me to run with it to the nearest terminal. That would be SLC.

Hmm I won't get any hours back until after midnight so this means I most likely will be running at night. The ABS light on the trailer will not go off now.

So I messaged my DM to see what she wants me to do. hell now is the perfect time to fix this because I cannot move until after midnight.

Something feels strange when I come to a stop as I started noticing this last night.

I am not upset about being pulled around because like I said I learned something that was very important. If I would have got a $450 ticket then yes I would be mad at myself and mad at the shop mechanic...

 

Depends on how much experience you have how much you make a mile. If you are coming out of school be prepared to only make .25 a mile. I had experience but got of the road for 17 years so I had to start all over again.

I have only been solo for a little over a month and averaging 2900 miles a week. That is with me being off for four days as well and one 34 hour and numerous times in the first week sitting at the terminal for a day.

All in all it's not too bad but wish there was more money to be had. Guess it will come in time but really need it now.