"Offboarded" after refusing to drive with a frame issue...

Hopefully in the right spot here. Got a small situation on my hands. Looking for some advice here / to verify my thoughts on next steps...
The long and short of it is this:

As a same-household team, got hired onto an expedite fleet owner out of school – 40' straight truck with a super sleeper, self-dispatch, team driving.
Picked the assigned truck up at a service facility (it'd just had box seals replaced). I notice there's a wood spacer between the cargo box frame and the truck frame. On the passenger side, it almost totally slipped out along a ~7' length.
I report it to the fleet owner. Fleet owner comes back, "This isn't a concern, don't even note it on the VIR."
I'm novice and not well-versed on these custom expedite trucks. I trust the fleet owner's take.

Few weeks later, we're at a service facility for a few things – things they declined to have done at the first service facility but needed doing.
I ask the manager there about the frame (they specialize in the expedite trucks). The team there tells me:

• A. The spacer slip-out is a safety hazard and can cause the box to slip off / cause a rollover. There's also no U-bolts present like there should be to keep it in place.

• B. Portions of the frame are cracking due to this (which I didn't see until they pointed it out).

• C. The cabin airbags are totally flat (Me and my teammate assumed that these trucks were just bone-shakers by nature).

• D. The truck would invariably get shut down by DOT if we'd been inspected.

I report this to the fleet owner. As does the shop. Fleet owner says "This is a costly repair, we need to consider how to proceed," and then asks that we drive it to another facility (where some other work was pending).
We tell them we're not comfortable driving it anywhere else with the standing issues.
They come back and say, "Since you're unhappy with this particular truck, here's your offboarding instructions."

What follows is me and my teammate repeatedly trying to clarify if we're being fired/they're terminating the contract, to which they only reply "we don't have any other trucks available for you, go home."
We haggle with them to get a rental car home, since we're over 1,000 miles away.

On the way back, we tell them straight-up we need our final pay dispersed immediately if we're being terminated or they need to give a definitive timeline on when we'd get a new truck or repairs to the one assigned would be complete.
Magically, they procured a truck for us that if we detoured to and took immediately "AS IS" (and that’s sitting in the previous driver’s driveway), we'd each get a whopping $150 bonus after our first load with it. It's several years older with several hundred thousand more miles on it.

Currently at home. Told them we won't discuss any further work until we get our pay settled being as they're weeks behind on it and not accounting for three loads we did in the pay.

We don't want to take another truck from them that doesn't have a current/to-date bumper-to-bumper inspection by a professional on it, certifying there's zero faults. I don't know if there's legal obligation on them to provide that, but I feel like that's a reasonable ask especially being as they've shown I can't take their word for "it's in good shape"?

There were a few other issues with them, including that they were totally ignoring us reporting water leaks in rain into the cab/sleeper. Also, we'd set up an operating area we were happy with that they pulled us out of with no explanation; lost out on quite a few lucrative loads due to this and spent a week moving empty/with no pay just to move the truck where they wanted it and then for service.

I'd prefer not to job hunt again, and there is a devil-you-know element – I know this kind of behaviour isn't exactly rare in the industry. But I don't know if it'd be wrong to continue working for them, especially considering "next steps".

As for “next steps”, I assume reports to FMCSA and OSHA should be made? If someone has details on that and if that's the correct recourse, that'd be a big help.

Is it safe to say we’re legitimately terminated/contract is extinguished if offboarded? I know they have a “if you quit inside a year, you owe us $$$” clause.

I know that the carrier that the fleet owner "leases" to shut the truck down after we reported the faults and won't reinstate it until the repairs are made.

Any thoughts or stories from drivers in similar / whistleblower positions would be appreciated.

What would you do?

 

1099.

 

That crossed our minds but we just left the truck at the service center like the company requested. Wouldn't Highway Patrol or DOT tag you for driving the vehicle with a known defect to get it to them though?