"Approved for Hire", but not really. Now I don't know what to do. Advice appreciated!

I've had my CDL 10 years and I've been doing yard dog work for the past 8 years. Looking to get out of that for many reasons.

I applied for a job that's an improvement in every way and much closer to home, with a long-established local manufacturer that's well-known pretty much worldwide, but I'll withhold the name. There would only be two of us driving in the division I'd be working for, doing local shuttling between a couple plant buildings, and a two-hour round trip a few times a week to get raw materials from a supplier. All day-cab, 8 hours 6-2 on day shift, a little forklift work on the docks, laid-back atmosphere, home every night. It's a great job and I want it badly.

I got an interview and was hired on the spot due to having an 'in' with a cousin of mine working there and recommending me. After the interview is when the complications began. HR emailed me a bunch of forms to fill out and a request to take a DOT physical and drug test, and I completed and submitted all that within 36 hours, so I was doing my part and was on top of the world about the new job.

Then, when it came time to do my FMSCA Clearinghouse check, the risk management service they have doing their driver checks for new hires found that the company wasn't correctly registered for clearinghouse access somehow, and also they had lost their PIN number to access the clearinghouse, since it had been a while since they'd needed to hire a CDL driver.

It took 3 1/2 weeks to get that straightened out, just so they could get a look at my clearinghouse record, which has zero violations. They knew that from the beginning because I sent them screenshots of my clearinghouse page, but that wasn't good enough. Risk management had to have the official query report.

Finally, after weeks of waiting and wondering, two days ago I was told I was "approved for hire" over the phone by the HR/hiring rep. I was excited and ready to put in my notice at my current employer right away the next morning, but I got to thinking that maybe I don't want to do that just based on a phone call, especially after all these complications. So I contacted the hiring rep and said I'd like something in writing saying this is really real.

I received the job offer in writing and simultaneously find out that there is still one more check they have to do on me, (which I figured would have been long done after all this time) in the form of the Safety Performance History Record Report, sent to my current employer, who has 30 days to respond with any drug/alcohol test problems or accidents in the past 3 years. They told me they don't send that earlier in the process because they want to make sure I'm approved, and also to avoid alerting my current employer that I'm job hunting.

That report is supposed to be for DOT recordable accidents as I understand it, but the wording on the form asks my current employer for "any accidents" within the last three years that were my fault. Well, I've moved something like 35,000 trailers in 8 years, probably 12-13,000 in the last 3 years, and there were 8 of us doing the job at the same site. We all had minor bumps and bruises doing that many trailer moves, with almost all the moves involving close-quarters, tight spots and tightly-packed lots.

I had a cluster of three minor incidents from about 2 years, 3 months ago to 2 years 9 months ago. They were my first incidents in years, and I have had none since. (As a matter of fact, I just got my 2-year safety bonus.) None of them were DOT recordable, all on private property, all minor low-speed stuff, and one of them didn't cost my company a cent because it was a bump against a low bollard post that bent some plastic fender trim on my yard dog.

The new employer is now expecting me to put in my notice at my current job on Monday, two days from now, and start the new job on October 12, which is 11 days from now. I'm worried that my current employer will report those accidents, but also they may not, I have no idea.

I'm faced with quitting my current job and starting a new one, which may come to a screeching halt sometime in the first 18 days after I start (the rest of the 30-day response window from my current employer) if the report comes back and the new job is completely inflexible in the no accidents in three years policy. It does say in the hiring literature that such things are reviewed by risk management and HR before decisions are made. You can't hold a yard dog driver who's constantly working in close quarters to the same standard as regular LTL/road drivers. Like I said every one of us on that job had multiple minor, low-speed incidents over the years, and a few of the guys have 20-30 years in truck driving.

This post got to be way too long, I guess, but I wanted the background information in there. I guess I'm wondering if I would be a fool to quit my current job (which I really hate) for a new job (which I'm really going to love) while the uncertainty of this report is still hanging out there, and I have no idea what the report will say or how it will be handled if the accidents are on there when it comes back.

I'm thinking my current employer may not have recorded them as accidents, since that goes against the company too, and they were all on private property of our contracted work site, and all were minor, involving no other vehicles or people, cops, or insurance claims.

I just don't know what to do now. Do I call HR on Monday and tell them about the accidents? These aren't "trucking" people. They mostly hire employees to work in production and aren't used to hiring drivers, so they may just instantly freak out and say that I'm disqualified because "rules", after all this time and complications getting this far in the process.

Or should I go ahead with putting in my notice, starting the new job, and hoping for the best. It will be a #### stressful first 2 1/2 weeks on the job until that October 30 response deadline goes by.

 

Because being truthful in my application has gotten me nowhere in the past.

And the accidents aren't road-type accidents, so I don't even know if they'll be recorded or reported. My current company understands, and has no problem with us having the occasional minor mishap, it's the cost of doing business, and it happens.

I guess companies hiring new people think they can be more selective though. I got hired at another job a couple months ago based on a phone interview and they wanted me to start the next day, but I ended up turning down the job. They weren't interested in crawling into nooks and crannies of my life, so I'm a little surprised at the thoroughness of the hiring process at this new job. I don't believe I've ever had an employer in trucking actually contact my previous employer, but I haven't changed jobs in 8 years and this is the fourth time since I've had a CDL, so things may have changed.

I am leaning toward your suggestion of letting the new job know about the incidents and see what happens. It will be better than ending up with no job in a couple weeks if they find the accidents and refuse me outright. But what if they never find out about them? Then I'd be shooting myself in the foot for nothing.

What is the likelihood, in your opinion, that my current employer (a small subsidiary of a large, well-known, worldwide trucking company, but logoed with the large company's graphics on the trucks) will return the report and/or report these incidents to the new employer?

 

Right now I'm a Nancy with a job. I hope to be a non-Nancy with a better job in a couple weeks, but I don't want to end up with no job at all.

Continued paychecks are my concern. I don't like my current job, but it's better than a lot of the trucking jobs out there. I have to examine my risk tolerance I guess.

 

Do employers usually reply, as far as you know, or is it common practice in the industry to ignore these requests?