First like to apologize that this post may be a little drawn out and complex but I will try to explain and make it as simple as possible.

Back in October of 2007 I decided that I wanted to get into trucking it was something that I always wanted to do but never had made the move to do it. I contacted a recruiter through driver's choice and did all the applications stuff over the phone with him and all the necessary stuff that they had asked I was given a date to attend the school and sent a bus ticket. Well I got home with the ticket and then received a phone call from the recruiter saying that I could not attend as of yet because I had not had my license for a complete year due to a suspension. Well now as of the 24th of this month my license will be valid for a complete year. Still wanting to drive truck I contacted the recruiter which no longer works for them so I was set up with a new recruiter who still did have my information now here is my question basically my main concern is that I have a seven year old felony. I'm concerned that I would get down there and they would do the background check and find that and I would be out the $150 it cost to sit in the class and any other money that I had occurred basically I guess my concern is do they do a background check first before they send me to the Swift Academy or does that all happened upon completion of the school and then find out that you can not work for them because of this I can't imagine a company going to the trouble of sending you a bus ticket and the cost of putting through the school without first doing a background check and knowing if I'm going to have a job or not it's a nonviolent felony for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. So I guess in a nutshell once you are accepted at the school would I have and be guaranteed a job with Swift or what a background check be done again or for the first time and told sorry we cannot hire you .if anybody has been in this situation or can give me any input on it I would really appreciate it thank you.

According to another website, Swift will not hire anyone with a felony. I'd suggest you reveal this to the recruiter before you go any further in this venture. They will most certainly discover this, as all trucking companies perform a thorough background check.

This doesn't mean you won't be able to drive a truck, it just means that you might not be able to drive one for Swift. That's not a bad thing either as Swift has one of the worst reputations of just about any company out there.

I'll PM you a link to a good website to do some research on that will tell you if a company hires someone with a felony or not and how old it has to be if they do. Aside from the link I'll PM you, there is tons of information on this forum as well as on The Truckers Report's main site.

Good luck.

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Keep that diesel burnin' and those tires turnin', but get there safe to keep on earnin'!!

Thank you for your quick response I will check out your link that you sent me. So in your opinion you would say that just because they send you all the way to the school and everything does not necessarily mean that Swift is going to hire you that they will do a background check after that point and I may get turned away?

I don't know how Swift handles that. I would like to think that they would pre-qualify you prior to your arrival at their school. In most cases I would say they do. However, you've got to realize that a recruiter's job is to get bodies into that class. He may or may not conduct a background check prior to someone's arrival. I'm sure there are policies that restrict this from happening, but as I'm sure you are well aware there are lots of policies in this world that aren't adhered to.

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Keep that diesel burnin' and those tires turnin', but get there safe to keep on earnin'!!