Road Unworthy

Trooper one I had a Texas Trooper tell me they tried to get Austin to let them issue all equipment violations to the owner of the truck.Well the answer to that was NO WAY.I think it might help to get the jubkers off the road. Mabe.

 

About thirty-one years ago I had this happen to me. I called my dispatcher from the Outrider Truck Stop on I-80 in Wyoming...Prior to leaving I had written up the brakes on the tractor as needing replacement. When I picked my truck up the dispatcher said they had relined the brakes. I nearly set the trailer brakes on fire coming down the hill into Outrider's. I then checked the tractor brakes and they were thin as paper. I called the dispatcher and he said "have the mechanic back the brakes off in the front and drive home on the trailer brake"s!!!! I told him I like living, but didn't outright refuse (I needed the job badly...it was a bad recession at the time). He made it sound as though if I didn't bring the truck in, I would be over and out with the company. I got on the horn and called Wyoming Highway Patrol and told them (anonymously) that a white Freightliner cabover with bad brakes might be leaving the truck stop in an hour. Twenty minutes later the WHP officer pulled in and asked me about the truck. I told him the story and he wrote it up (to my company, not me!!!!) as "out-of-service"...and noted that it was found at a roadside inspection by a concerned citizen's request and the vehicle not running at the time (to take the heat off me). The tractor brakes got relined at Outrider's and I drove home and saw the dispatcher...he asked me about what the chances of my rig being inspected were and I said low, real low. I left his office giggling to myself! That experience got me to quit working for them (on my terms three months later) and go back to school.

 

I do not and would not operate any equipment that represents a danger to me or the general public.I have a clear conscious and will keep it that way.
Don't get me wrong,I have selfish motivations. If you are involved in an accident and hurt,or worse,kill someone and are operating an unsafe truck and or breaking any of the meriad DOT regs,YOU WILL GO TO PRISON!!!!!!
Dispatch can bribe,beg or threaten and the answer will always be NO!
I have 28 accident free years behind me and look forward to many more,the good Lord willing.

 

Sure there is....drivers fired for refusing to violate the law can file complaints for wrongful termination. GOOD drivers don't sweat it, they just go on down the road to the next job.

 

I have worked for a few different carriers, Little Audreys, May Truck, and T&T tankers would penalize a driver that refused to move a truck that had problems, May Truck not only parked me for a week they took my safety bonus for refusing to move a trailer out of the T/A in Albuquerque NM. Little Audrey put me out of work for a month, T&T docked me refuding to use a trailer with a cracked frame, So I took the trailer out stright to the closest DOT scale at which time DOT put it out of service.

IWX and Valley Bulk did not want you to ever run with bad equipment. Bith are excellant on getting it repaired quickly.

 

With my company the drivers are the mechanics. Some of the drivers do not want to do the work, so when they find something wrong they do not report it. Then I get in to drive and do an inspection. I find several things wrong. I then spend that day and part of the next day fixing the truck. It is not so much wanting to run illiegal as it is laziness. I like driving, but I want to drive safely with a safe truck and trailer. Have I thought about calling the DOT, several times when I know a truck is going out the door with a problem. I will spend more time fixing vehicles than driving them at work. As far as brakes and tires go, if I say that they need to be replaced then I replace them after I get the parts. Lights are a small thing that does not take much time to fix. All I have to do is write in the post trip inspection report that there is a problem. Then they have to take care of it.