pending felony conviction not drug/alcohol related

I read through the entire "DUI/Drug, felony and trucking facts" thread on the Experienced Truckers' Advice forum.

I have questions regarding getting hired with a felony conviction, and I think I would do better to post my questions here.


Here is a quote from the OP of that post:
"If, you've been convicted of a felony, most companies once again say 5 years, some 7, some 10, some never. If the felony had anything to do with a CMV, you are pretty much done for life. These are generally company requirements. There are some that will hire felons with less than 5 years from conviction. Beware, however, that they will take advantage of your situation and you will be paid significantly less than your counterparts without a felony."

I am considering getting my CDL very soon, and here is my situation:
I have a PENDING felony conviction. The crime has nothing to do with DUI, drugs, alcohol, or violent crime. It is a non-violent "white-collar" crime (regarding IP/copyright). I am considering a 4 week school and can have my CDL by the end of August. I will be pleading guilty and will probably not be convicted until early 2015. The felony conviction is almost a definite. The only way it wouldn't be is if the charges are magically dropped, but that is not likely. I am 99% confident that my sentence will be probation only, with no jail time. My goal is to have my CDL and already have landed a job with a decent company BEFORE my conviction. The main reason is because I fear it will be very difficult to switch jobs once I have the conviction on my record.

I have zero other past problems. Zero alcohol/drug related arrests or anything.


Here are my questions:
Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with how a felony conviction having nothing to do with driving or drugs or DUI can affect getting a driving job?
I am wondering if it is true that most companies will not hire someone with any type of felony within the past 5 years. The actual "crime" itself was 4 years ago, but it has been a very slow process with getting indicted and then finally convicted, which should happen next year.

Do companies check for current charges or pending convictions? Or only sentenced convictions?

thanks

 

Thanks to all for the replies so far.

My assumption was that companies do not ask on their applications about any pending convictions. They only ask about convictions. This is why I wanted to be hired before the conviction. I'm guessing I was wrong about that, and that all or most of them do ask about pending convictions?

There aren't going to be many court dates. There will be a guilty plea which will happen around late this fall, and then around 3 months later is the sentencing, which is expected to be just probation. That's it. Other than that I'd need to be home once a month or so, but from what I understand most OTR jobs you are home at least that often.