Ended 2013 With Lots Of Fun...

My second load out of training was to go from Red Bay, AL to Zanesville, OH. I got the load there fine and dropped it and went to find an empty. All of our empties are in one row after I searched six rows total, so I go back to the first row and out of habit (already) I chose the newest one out of the ones available. I had trouble hooking to it for some reason but got it hooked after a few tries. WHen I finally got hooked to the trailer the screen on my QC shut off and wouldn't come back on. I called my DM and he told me to call QC for troubleshooting which didn't work. Called the DM back and they told me to use paper logs and that they finished me out on my current load and dispatched me on the next. Sitting there frustrated, I traced the QC wire into the dash, ripped off the dash covers and kept tracing the wire and found out if I moved the wire one way, the screen came on and if i moved it another way the screen would go black. So I thought, cool I fixed it for now. then I hooked up the lines and did my inspection. Everything was fine. Tug tested, sent in my mac32 and started toward the security shack. Halfway there, I get a trailer ABS light, so I pull into the parking area they have inside the gate and call my DM. Security comes out and says I need to leave, so I explain its not legal to pull that trailer and that I am trying to find out what dispatch wants me to do. THey tell me to call road maintenance who ask me to pull the trailer 50 miles across 70 illegally, so I told them that's not happening. A second security guard comes out and tells me I have to leave, and I was able to get 10 minutes more from him before I had to leave, all the while he's burning up my time while he talks to me asking questions and distracting me from freeforming my DM to ask if I can hook to another empty there. She said yes and to let her know what trailer I get, so I dropped the one with broken ABS and hook up to an old trailer, with everything working fine.

Funny part about all of this? After I dragged the trailer back to its spot and as I was backing it in, I realized I had no ABS light anymore. Go figure.

My fun new years' eve was spent in my truck at the hook just east of Columbus, OH... thankful that I'm not stuck with a messed up trailer waiting on road maintenance.

It's always something, isn't it? And thank God for understanding security guards.