As a background checking service, we at Corra Group have been noticing an increase in the number of drivers who are driving on suspended licenses. The reasons for the suspension can vary from Driving Under the Influence or DUIs to just too many tickets, failure to appear, failure to provide insurance. We are seeing this with operators with personal motor vehicle driving licenses, and we see it increasingly with truckers with Commercial Drivers License, or CDLs.
I suppose you can blame the economy for some of it. People are out of work, working part time and having money troubles, so they feel funky, start to drink and, overall, behave poorly behind the wheel. Maybe it is because of the economic downturn that more drivers are not paying their tickets and failing to show up on court. They may believe that the state Department of Motor Vehicles have been so overloaded and suffering budget constraints that they are not pursuing those with suspended licenses. There is prevailing belief as well that the courts are clogged and they are slow in dealing with scofflaws.
Beliefs or not, if you are driving on a suspended license and get pulled over, chances are you are doing to jail. For trucking firms, as most well realize, a truck driver on a suspended license will degrade your insurance rankings. If a trucker driving on a suspended license is pulled over and hauled in, then the truck is impounded. It costs to get the truck out of the pound. The goods inside the truck, if they are perishables, will go back. Most of the time insurances companies will not pay up for the ruined load, because the trucking firm was negligent in allowing its driver to operate on a suspended license.
Most trucking firms must comply with Department of Transportation or DOT regulations. This means, among other things conducting the motor vehicle driving records, MVRs on a regular basis. But trucking firms may consider running the MVRs more frequently than required by DOT compliance. It will protect the trucking firm from embarrassing and costly situations. Consider the other day, I ran one MVR for a new client, and the motor vehicle driving report came back with, literally, with records extending on paper for a good two feet. That’s a lot of driving infractions. The license had been suspended, and the client told me the trucker had failed to inform them. In this economy he feared losing hsi job and wanted to keep working. So he drove for seven months on a suspended license. Not good.
So be aware of your drivers and their motor vehicle driving records. They could not only get themselves in trouble but you, the employer, as well. Check them out before you hire, and keep checking them out on a regular basis.
