Can I become a trucker with a federal felony?

Date of conviction is the day the judge announced the verdict, dropped the gavel in court, or you signed a guilty plea. Your were accused, but presumed innocent, until the day the verdict is announced or you signed the plea agreement. That is the day you are convicted, date of conviction. You may have been in jail waiting trial before trial/pled out. I'm sure the TSA has a frequently asked questions page or you can use a search engine like duckduckgo.com or evil Google. You want offical answers, not believe any old stranger guessing the answer until you hear an answer you like. If you don't get the HazMat endorsement right away, the TSA background stuff doesn't even apply.

The most important thing is to find the job that will hire you, before you waste time and money on CDL school. I'm getting vibes you are not going to do that. You might just go to school and see what happens. IMO, that is exactly the wrong thing to do. You do you.

 

It's there. Drug running counts a smuggling.

 

Hope is not a plan. The TSA has rules and they will use those rules to judge a background for approval. Until you read with your own eyes what the TSA rules are do not apply, you are just wasting your money. Even if everyone on this forum agreed you should pass, we could be wrong. The TSA will judge your application according to the TSA rules. Being govt, they print their rules. If you are serious about changing your life through trucking you have to do more than wait for us to guess what the TSA will do. The same internet you use to read this forum also will show you the TSA rules or connect you with people that recently went through the TSA check after a conviction. And most importantly many drivers never get a HazMat. None of this matters if you simply don't apply for a HazMat endorsement or if you wait until any deadline's expire and then apply. Do not assume not being eligible for HazMat now means not getting a driving job. I'm guessing 75% of truck drivers don't have HazMat and it makes almost no difference to them what the TSA rules might be. You are not the first person with a conviction to start trucking. Search engines are like time machines, they allow you to get an answer today even if the situation described happened 4 years ago for someone else. Put some effort in and the answer will mean more to you.

 

Yes, I re-read the TSA page after a previous person concluded the same thing. Both of you are correct and I know see you are both correct. Thanks

 

OIC, shows that I know nothing about Fed crimes. I was gonna bring up expungement, but maybe the Fed rules are different about that too. It's been so long, I THINK the time limit on the state was wait eleven years before eligible.

 

Thanks for the info, but not planning on going to CAN anymore so didn't have any incentive to Google it. Ok, I'll shut up and just read more and stop posting.

 

Something else to consider: the CDL job market right now is NOT FRIENDLY to new CDL holders -- even those with a clean criminal history/driving record.

-- L