refusing to haul a load (im a truck driver) with no license plate on trailer and employer refused to make load legal

by carla murray
(kingman arizona usa)

i found my license plate on trailer was missing i reported it to my safety director she said continue on they would fix it once i got it into yard which was 1500 miles away. i went thru 1 weigh station the officer wrote me a ticket for $728 and $50 when it was corrected. i told safety what the officer said and did. the officer told me i would recieve a ticket at every weigh station across (about 5 more weigh stations) unless i got them to fedex me a plate for the trailer. i told safety this they refused to fedex a plate ,they said they would pay the tickets, i asked if they would put that in writing and fax it to me, they said they would put nothing in writing and if i didnt roll with the load they would put me down as quitting and abandoning truck trailer and load causing me to be unhireable by anyone in the trucking industry. i said no i wasnt quitting i just require the load to be legal or to have it in writing that they would not hold me responsable for the tickets as they charge drivers $75-$1000 per ticket on top of we pay the courts the fines.i also sent this in an email to their email address they sent a driver to me told me give my key to the other driver i was done , they lied about this in appeal court for unemployment, but i showed proof. however unemployment found that this company does not pay unemployment or workers comp or deduct taxes from our pay. i did not know this, so they decided this was not my last employer and went after my previous employer where i voluntarily quit, because of never getting days off and hometime. unemployment put my u.i. into unresolved issue and its been there for 6 weeks going on 7 weeks. i live in arizona applied in arizona. what can i do where unemployment is concerned as i feel they got my case went to sleep and forgot to wake up. and what can i do where the employer is concerned he kept my last 2 paychecks totaling $3000.00 and he put on my dac report (which is how other trucking companies hire drivers thru) he put that i abandoned truck trailer and load was in an unauthorized area and broke company policy. these statements have made it impossable to get employment elsewhere with another trucking company. i have applied to 250 other companies always getting the same answer , with that on my dac and them giving me such a bad referance i am not hireable by federal laws governing the trucking industry . what can i do? i cant get unemployment off their duff and i cant find employment due to these statements, can you guide me in the right direction. ive been a truck driver for 12yrs and this is the worst position ive ever gotten into. what can i legally do? i have thought of the illegal but would prefer to keep this legal.thanks my name is carla murray they call me halfpint on the radio.




Oh Halfpint:), let's keep it legal.

I can assume a few things about this trucking company and why the state has it in an unresolved status .. they are probably investigating this employer and they are very possibly in a whole lot of hot water.

In the meantime Carla if you want to keep it legal .. and you should .. you need to contact an attorney .. this is way beyond anything I can help you with .. not to mention that since they are reporting you as abandoning your truck to other employers .. you probably have some other kind of lawsuit to pursue.

Clearly, if they had been paying UI tax .. you would be receiving benefits by now .. because when they asked you to drive illegally .. you had good cause to quit .. let alone getting fired for refusing.

Seriously, talk to a lawyer .. I mean it!!