driver qualifications

On Nov. 30, 2022, a delivery driver put Athena Strand in the back of a branded van and strangled her. The company that hired him was seven months old. Its owner had never worked a day in the trucking industry. The box was checked. The FBI has linked more than 850 murders to commercial truck drivers since 2004 and is tracking 450 active suspects right now. This is a hiring problem. It has always been a hiring problem.

The war with Iran moved diesel up nearly 50 percent in five weeks and analysts are modeling $6 and higher if the Strait of Hormuz stays disrupted into summer. Carriers are repricing surcharges, shippers are absorbing new fees and everyone is looking for relief. The biggest lever most fleets have on their fuel budget is not an aerodynamics package or a new engine spec. It is the driver.

According to reports, nearly 4% of drivers on U.S. highways don’t have valid CDLs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With licensing standards fractured across states and risky drivers slipping through the cracks, here is how fleets can get ahead of driver risk before it costs them a verdict, a fatality or the whole business.

Carriers are operating in an environment where every new driver hire could result in a productive driver tenure or a multimillion-dollar negligence lawsuit.

Doug Marcello joins Taking The Hire Road to discuss the trend of nuclear verdicts in the trucking industry.

Adhering to regulations alone is complex in itself, but is it enough for a strong safety program? J. J. Keller & Associates, industry experts in safety and compliance guidance, don’t think so.

“Treat every application like it is worth a million dollars. An allegation of negligent hiring in post-crash litigation could cost at least that and more,” said Mark Schedler, senior transport editor at J. J. Keller & Associates.

What’s in your Driver Qualification File?

Prioritizing high-risk motor carriers for interventions an added challenge.