U.S. Xpress, a carrier based out of Chattanooga, TN, is offering to settle a class action lawsuit for $2.75 million. The lawsuit claims that the company violated the Fair Credit and Reporting Act by illegally performing background checks on job applicants.
Unfortunately, when a carrier employs over 7,000 drivers, there’s bound to be a temptation to cut some corners in the hiring process.
Robert R. Bell Jr., the plaintiff in the class action suit, applied for a job with U.S. Xpress in October of 2009. According to Bell, he had not given either verbal nor written permission for the company to receive a consumer report through HireRight Solutions Inc, the infamous controller of truckers’ DAC Reports.
The decision not to hire Bell was made when HireRight reported that he “had been convicted of felony burglary, felony robbery, grand larceny and several parole violations, all leading to a 10-year prison sentence.” Unsurprisingly, none of these supposed crimes proved to be true. In fact, Bell had no idea that his DAC report contained this information until he received a letter and a copy of his report from HireRight a week later.
Bell is not the only member of the class action suit, however. In fact, U.S. Xpress estimates that the settlement class may consist of around 72,000 truck drivers who applied for jobs between July 8th, 2009, and Dec. 31st 2011. It is unknown how many of those 72,000 will qualify to receive a part of the settlement.
Since the class action suit is over the decision of U.S. Xpress to run background checks regardless of whether or not an applicant authorized it, U.S. Xpress is the only one paying the cost of the settlement. The fact that HireRight routinely provides companies with information that is blatantly incorrect – depriving drivers of job opportunities every day – is apparently not a large enough issue to cause them to pay even a single cent.
The settlement will not go through until it gets approved by the U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee who is presiding over the case.
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Source: landlinemag
Someone should do a background check oh HireRight. They should be sued for libel & defamation of character . Occupy HireRight !
how does hire right keep getting away with this bull crap
I’ve had a false report on my DAC report for five years. I have fought it, hired a company to fight it, appealed the decisions, and they just keep this falsehood on my report.
I’ve complained to the government, hireright and anyone who would listen. But still it remains.
I don’t know how this company can be so powerfull that they can just lie about people like that and no-one can stop them.
They have lost law suits and had to pay. They’ve changed their name at least three times, but they just won’t straighten up.
I really wish the government would stop these people.
Company’s should stop using this useless company to qualify drivers. the gov. needs to step in and put a halt to the information they put out. The companies that use them (DAC) always put useless info on drivers reports if they have a gruge against them or they refused to drive illegal.
I sent for the free copy of my DAC report 5 years after I retired and it came back with only one company listed on it and that was a company I had never worked for in the 42 1/2 years that I drove and that company was U S Express.
I’ve dealt with DAC,USIS,Hier right for many years, I’ve been round and round with this generic
reporting agency, there little to no fact finding has caused me much harm, I requested in writing
a couple of time to cease out dated and fales info to the point of a law suit, they response is, we only report what is on your MVR or what pissed off past employers report.
I’ve filed a greivence with the BBB, I was one of those claims in the class action law suit against them, I never received any comp, never asked for it, I just wanted these poeple to come to lite
I request a copy of my file every year from DAC to see whats on it, of course you only get one if
a possible employer request your info, an other word some one has to PAY them for your file
in order for you to get a copy, these poeple are a payed service and nothing is free.
If you think there bad take a look at the personal individual profiling (PSP) going on by your
own government, this is the only organization allowed to blackball anyone at anytime, recourse
for bad info here takes months if years to correct, 5 years this is held over your head on minor mistakes, the pionts they assign minor infractions are the same as if you were cited, another words a warning is no differant than a ticket, they say it dose not count on the CSA but they dont
tell you that any and all write ups will be on your file, employers are using this report as the sole hirring or firing tool, this is not the way its suppost to be used, its to be used in conjunction
with all info submitted in the hirring process, this is unfair and unjust to be caught up in a whitch
hunt, I thought profiling was illeagle, it is for race or gender but its ok for CDL holders, were all
liers and cant be trusted so we need our national socialist govenment to keep tabs on us,
what a wonderful country, your rights are all but gone if your a CDL holder, this practice is
nothing more than communist dictatorship, a control method to medal or disrupt your livelyhood
to put a net in the water and drag up anything that gets caught up in it, the hell with the by product the percentages are collateral damage who cares if they die in the net.??????????
where it dose not show up on an MVR it dose show up here
Hire Right should be the primary in this suit, they are the true bad actor in this case. They are notorious for providing inaccurate and absolutely false information that impacts millions of drivers that they report on. I feel sorry for US Express, and that’s saying a lot because I don’t care for them all that much.
Glad to see this they did the exact same thing to me over the last ten years when contacted ordisputed they just said oh well and blew it off I have all the papers and a list they claim is everyone they supplied reports to what can I do
I would like to know the status on the class action suit against US Express. Has it settled, if not what is happening?