Quitting over the road for home nightly and the economy

The part I made bold MUST be done during the hiring process.

§ 391.23 Investigation and inquiries.


(a) Except as provided in subpart G of this part, each motor carrier shall make the following investigations and inquiries with respect to each driver it employs, other than a person who has been a regularly employed driver of the motor carrier for a continuous period which began before January 1, 1971:

(1) An inquiry, within 30 days of the date the driver's employment begins, to each driver's licensing authority where the driver held or holds a motor vehicle operator's license or permit during the preceding 3 years to obtain that driver's motor vehicle record.

(2) An investigation of the driver's safety performance history with Department of Transportation regulated employers during the preceding three years.

(b) A copy of the motor vehicle record(s) obtained in response to the inquiry or inquiries to each driver's licensing authority required by paragraph (a)(1) of this section must be placed in the driver qualification file within 30 days of the date the driver's employment begins and be retained in compliance with § 391.51. If no motor vehicle record is received from a driver's licensing authority required to submit this response, the motor carrier must document a good faith effort to obtain such information. The inquiry to a driver's licensing authority must be made in the form and manner each authority prescribes.


The above is MANDATORY! Then further down are the rules that cover not getting replies!

Now there is a grey area I will admit. A carrier can make a conditional offer of employment. The thing is though, as part of that process these things MUST be in the driver FMCSA required files.

 

One more point I would like to touch on. While it is not at all common, some drivers damage trucks and other things while on the way out. I know of this first handed as I actually saw the photographs. They get angry think the world owes them everything and have no issues at all doing damage. The last one I saw was a driver who had actually almost taken a landing gear off of a trailer. My point is simple. In the real world, you really need to follow 391.23 and make sure you know who it is you are hiring. I know many people that either own or manage a fleet, I even know some people still in HR. With some limited exceptions, not one will hire a driver without getting this information from present or past carriers. A person that operates a trucking carrier if they don't follow these simple rules will at some point come to deeply regret it!

 

Let's get something clear. The FMCSA is not hiding behind trees waiting to pounce. This is not where I am coming from. What I am trying to say is these investigations MUST BE DOCUMENTED! Then later added to the driver's files. Every I must have a dot and every T crossed. The FMCSA when they do a safety audit hits these files just about as hard as they do HOS and maintenance records. I know a carrier that recently got a civil fine from the FMCSA after an audit because their driver's files were not right. @brian991219 also knows how important this is.

One last point. Unless I know the driver! I will take any requests made by the said driver to not follow 391.23 ON THE SPOT as a red flag. Of course there is a lot of wiggle room where 391.23 is concerned. Just don't get the wagon in front of the horses because it can cost major $$$$ if the FMCSA sees sloppiness.

 

You can use bold fonts all you want but the regs do not say the current employer has to be contacted before the new employee is hired. I can investigate the previous three years however I see fit.

 

You're wasting your time, my friend. He's just here to argue anything and everything he can find. He owns no trucks and he's not a motor carrier. Soooo many places never return the employment forms that the FMCSA says all the Carrier needs is proof they tried. He's just joined a very long ignore list of others just like him lol.

 

I'm skeptical of your claim. The stupid people are still breeding.

 

I can AND WILL say the very same thing about you! You do not have to own trucks to know the inside of this process when done correctly. I have seen smaller carriers fined major $$$ because they listened to the likes of you! Then have to go hire someone like @brian991219 to clean up the sloppy mess that is their driver files!

As I said now 3 times, there is a lot of wiggle room in 391.23. I just HIGHLY advise not using it a lot. I might also add to expect the FMCSA to get even tighter over the next few years.

Oh, I might also add you must not know the hiring rules or you would know that you DO NOT just ignore nonreplies to those requests. Again this is something covered in 391!

 

About 2 years ago I was sitting in the office of the head safety person in a top 25 national Mega. Just catching up with an old friend when he showed me a notice from the FMCSA of an impending compliance audit. Nothing major just a date to expect them. If I remember the letter properly it came from FMCSA headquarters in DC but the auditors would come from the closest service center. This carrier later had some things found in their driver files, HOS records and there were some things in the maintenance records that got them a return audit that they, in turn, did badly and in fact, people lost their jobs over it.

NO! The FMCSA does not publish flow charts on how to do this hiring process. People such as @brian991219 @REO6205 @Ridgeline know how the FMCSA is when it comes to these files. I suggest ANYBODY that hires no matter if it is just one truck or a thousand trucks to develop a system to take you through this hiring process as you dot every I and cross every T.

 

You nailed it. Anybody responsible for regulatory compliance had better know exactly what they're doing. You can be sure the FMCSA does.