Before you even apply...

You folks that have time,you should write done your work history and all the other things companies ask for.I have an application which makes it so much easier when filling out online applications.

 

If an applicant is unable to list any personal references, however, he or she has a good work history, a clean MVR, an no criminal history, would this bar the applicant from getting a job as a truck driver, either OTR ot local?

 

I don't know who here has ever had to do a background check to put a driver in the seat of a truck so I assume no one has.

First the OP has good advice but I don't think it is unreasonable to call the local cop shop and ask them for a criminal background check, I've done this a couple times and used it as a per-employment check for myself. Most of the time they will oblige you unless you are wanted for something.

Second the 10 year thing isn't about the company nor the insurance company which dictates a lot of things for carriers - it is the FMCSA regulations and it is a PIA. Thank 9/11 and such for the enforcement of it, because this is where it comes from now. Now the trick to this is to document as much as possible within that ten years and like it has been said a few times - it doesn't have to be perfect. If the company does do a background check on you and you are counting a driving job under FMCSA (federal) regulations like interstate trucking as past experience, then they will look to confirm that if it is recent but out of all the companies I worked for or with, they usually look at the first three and that's it. Your criminal background check won't show those, and neither will any thing else as far as I can see, but calling the company will.

Third thing is the SS administration does not have your employment records, they only have what you either paid into the system by your self-employment taxes or what the company submits.

I decided a month ago to find some part time work and it has been a pain. I filled a lot of pre-hire stuff out, got tired of putting in those on line apps and started to just go to the company and ask for an app which got me calls. So I just went through the hiring process with four companies and think they need to accept an application that is standardized by the FMCSA because it got tiring filling out four 15 page apps and having two companies accept me for part time work only to fill out 37 more pages for each company from I-9s to FMLA acknowledgement. I did the 10 years back, I've got a lot of little employment gaps so I put them in chronological order of the gaps with an explanation for each one.

 

Thank you everyone for the intelligent and helpful responses. I am making a dummy applications with all of my information organized so I am able to fill out apps quickly and accurately. As a standard approximately how many personal references would be optimal. I know when I bought a car they wanted 10 which I thought and still think is totally ridiculous. Would I be alright with 5 well trusted close personal and professional references or so I need to fill 5 more spots with people I semi know? .

 

How many years back is the motor vehicle report? I've had a Cali, Alaska, Washington, and current Nevada license depending on where I lived or was stationed in the past 10 years. I've done a check on myself with Nv and it's clean. When I had a Az license I got a speeding ticket in 08 and it shows on my background check for some reason still, but zero tickets from Wa show up.

 

This is almost the equivalent of someone who makes it through their 4th. year of high school, goes to graduation in their cap and gown, and then gets DENIED their diploma due to some course or credit that they may have forgotten about back in their 1st. year of high school.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

All what you say is true....But their lawyers and the DOT have made it harder to qualify folks nowadays...after 9/11 you must have zero gaps in your work history I think to get a TWIC card or a Haz Mat endorsement and rightly so IMO...but that is the way it is...anytime the folks in government try to fix something all they do is put folks in charge of fixing it that have no idea what the problem is to start with , much less how to go about fixing it.....just follow me..........[/QUOTE]

Gaps are easy to fill in, even the biggest dimwit could find a reasonable excuse for staring at the walls for years on end. I was laid off from the Auto industry during the economic downturn in 2007. I spent three years unemployed on unemployment before I found transportation. All I had to do was sign a statement of long term unemployment and prove I collected benefits... and just like that I was eligible for HazMat certification. Even if I hadn't collected UI, I would have still qualified with a signed statement. So theoretically, I could have been homeless, wandering the streets and ruining my insides on gut-rot, and no one would have been the wiser.

When you cut through the noise, trucking is still one of the least appealing and most difficult careers to transition in to. There are ways around just about anything to create new drivers, so the illusion that heavier scrutiny upon one's "employment history" will somehow create a safer environment or better drivers is just that...it's like seeing a lush river in hundred degree heat atop the asphalt. You believe so strongly that it's there, but you're still somehow thirsty...