Questionable reporting practices exacerbate driver shortage

Dive Brief:

• Commercial drivers have filed countless lawsuits against HireRight LLC, an Irvine, CA based driver background check company, which provides driver employment histories — including accidents and incomplete deliveries — in the form of Drive-a-Check or "DAC" reports, the Wall Street Journal reports. 
• The plaintiffs allege HireRight often reports unsubstantiated claims and neglects to meet the driver rebuttal requirement, as established by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 
• HireRight was previously sued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as the agency accused the company of failing to reasonably assure the accuracy of information provided to employers. The case was settled for  $2.6 million, and though HireRight did not admit to wrongdoing, it did accept FTC monitoring.

Dive Insight:

Supply chain managers may not feel the immediate effects of the claims, but the incident reflects various commercial driver grievances which is, directly and indirectly, leading to the oft-talked about driver shortage in the industry.

Drivers, who are often forced to leave their homes for days at a time (if not more) to complete shipments, value privacy and work-life balance highly. Yet, ill-verified reporting practices mix both in a dangerous ways. Driver abuse by operators is not uncommon and a bad relationship can single-handedly ruin a DAC report. 

A recent Overdrive article claims the driver shortage has little to do with lack of talent, and much to do with lack of retention. The Wall Street Journal report exposes just one more area of improvement for the industry. Trucking is a difficult job, so unless the industry works to correct their human resources problems, the shortage will not be corrected anytime soon.