What do most trucking companies consider to be a clean or good driving record?

Question

My husband is an experienced truck driver, looking for a new job. He was recently turned down by a company, and was told that they consider three violations to be too many. We have a copy of his driving record and don't understand what they have a problem with. His most recent violation was inattentive driving... 8 years ago. The other two both occurred 15 years ago. One was when he went through a stop sign, the other was an equipment violation (the police pulled him over at 1 am and accused him of having too-dark window tint on his car).

Neither of the citations involved an accident. He did recently have an accident, but wasn't cited and the officer who took his statement said he did nothing wrong and wasn't at fault.

My husband is a good, safe driver. It frustrates me that a company would refuse to hire him based on two moving violations from 8 and 15 years ago. Just doesn't seem reasonable to me.

Answer 1

I think the company your husband was applying at lied about why they didn't hire him. Incidents from 8 and 15 years ago are too old for consideration. Auto insurance doesn't even look that far back when quoting rates.

My employer (HVAC contractor) is tough with driving records, especially for those who drive company trucks. To them a clean record means no violations of any kind within the past 5 years. They check the driving records of every person considered for employment, including office personnel who will not be authorized to drive company trucks. Only those with a clean record get hired.

Answer 2

I do not think that would be why they didn't hire him-usually they are looking for DUI's and accedents.  My husband was a truck driver (well still is, but local not OTR).  He has tickets as recent as a year ago for speeding and an accedent 9 years ago...never had a problem getting a driving job!

I hate to cry foul, but perhaps they didn't want to hire him for another reason and just said that because it was easier (and more acceptable) than the real reason!