DAC ??? what does this mean

I take it from all the posts that only negative or damaging reports are filed on drivers? or do they post safety records, awards etc...

 

It's pretty much a black list for companies to use against drivers. They always put negative info on it to keep you from getting hired somwhere else.

 

That's exactly what it is... if a driver gets tired of the lies slung by some fly-by-night outfit, and takes the truck and unloaded wagon to the yard or office, cleans it out and tosses 'em the keys, that is NOT an abandonment. And how many false "positives" are recorded on DAC long after the driver has departed, I wonder? That's one of the biggest problems with this industry... you never know until you go with some of these outfits. Thankfully, that's changing with forums just like this one, where drivers can learn more about prospective employers BEFORE wasting time by going there, and also avoid DAC-related lies and grief. Of course, some vengeful drivers will unload on companies in these same forums, but as for the majority of posts, I can tell ya that I am MUCH more likely to believe the word of a driver than the word of some pogue in an office who doesn't have a clue about what drivers put up with on the road. In fact, there ought to be an "Office DAC" to identify liars who claim to have driven trucks (easily checked through MVRs), to identify companies which have blacklisted drivers with false "positives," and to record every incident where a dispatcher has blatantly lied or gone back on his or her word... of course, in a perfect world, pigs would fly, right? Enough said... plenty of companies don't waste time or money with DAC, as they realize they are limiting themselves by buying into such a blatantly biased document.

 

One more time with this thread...

 

Due to potential litigation, carriers are very limited as to what they can put on a DAC. Mistakes can happen. Some could possibly put something negative on a DAC, but it can be challenged. I think that for the most part DAC is fairly accurate. It can give a new carrier a means of checking trends of a driver. One negative isn't going to hurt much unless it involves drugs. If two or three have similar statements about a driver, then there is likely something wrong with the driver. Most carriers will only report the truth.

 

G man you must be a co. man. Companies do put negative info on the

dac it doesn't take much info to be turned down by a future employer. Even if you leave with 2 weeks notice bad info can and has been reported in hopes the driver can't afford to challenge it or doesn't think there is bad or wrong info on there. All negative hurt your record who are you trying to kid here? It has happened to me.

 

G Man....
Constitutional rights being violated 6th amendment,
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

This is here so your QUALITY of life or freedom isn't taken away.

 

Due to a lot of litigation, the DAC termination form is mostly a check list that limits what you can say. Therefore there are only a few answers that set off alarm bells.

-terminated VRS voluntary quit splits between 'Was he Fired?' and did he just get fed up and quit.

-abandoned equipment is subjective and open to abuse!

-personal contact requested = this guy was so bad that I'll only tell you over the phone so DAC and I can deny what I'm gonna say 'bout him!

-accidents, preventable/non-preventable

-positive drug tests

Everything else is related to time, experience, single/team, type of trailer, etc. Obviously there is a lot of 'reading between the lines' possible.

Not every carrier using DAC uses all the functions. My last position I used to churn 150 - 160 port 'owner operators' a year to keep 145 trucks at 9 terminals. We used DAC to run the CDL abstract and criminal report & SSN verification. Burning thru that many port drivers each year meant we considered a lot more people so I was running 275 - 350 CDLs a year.

I also spent a lot of time answering previous employer info requests from other container drayage companies. The major companies that subscribe to the previous employer info [from the DAC termination reports] would not need to fax me a request so I would put in a termination report and get that $2.50 for each guy who left. It cut down on the faxes I got looking for information needed to complete qualification files though J B Hunt and others would sometimes question what I sent in, like they were fishing for a reason not to hire someone.

Most of the time it was just the time, equipment driven & accidents and Vol Quit unless there was a reason for me to fire someone which was rare.

Over 6 years I had [1] post accident that was positive and [1] positive random...that was a lot of accurate info going into DAC...

Since the positive pre-employment guys were NOT leased on, I couldn't put them in even though I was well aware that most of them either tried again elsewhere or went back to the place they were already working.

Personally, I hope the new driver module in the CSA SMS system puts DAC out of business. Their merger w/ USIS tied them in w/ a company doing background checks for other industries like healthcare, etc. so they will live on outside of trucking.

 

Just the opposite may occur............

Wouldn't be surprised to see it become mandatory that companies use a clearing house,

like hireright !!!!

 

DOT has the OK to take the driver module on-line and is setting up so companies can use it. The carrier history in the new Safety Management System is only the past 24 months where Safe Stat was 30 months.

Since the Part 391 regulations require the carrier to check every past employer and get all accident and drug test info for the past three years, the driver module will have three years history...convienient, No?

You won't need DAC/USIS/HireRite or whatever they are calling themselves this week...

The same driver module will show any roadside inspector your roadside inspection history when he pulls you over...If your log book wasn't up to date last week, and last month, you can bet he's gonna be looking at your book....CSA has 7 'BASIC' areas and 5 of them are directly related to the driver's actions. Unlike Safe Stat focusing on Out of Service only, CSA looks at every violation found so drivers are being put under the microscope. Your actions will make your carrier's score good or bad and the bad guys will get targeted for more inspections so the carriers will be paying attention to what the DOT is keeping on file for any driver they want to hire!