How Driving Records Influence Hiring Decisions

Hiring safe, responsible employees is a crucial part of owning a company. You want to know what kind of person your applicant is before you give them a role within your business. This is why more and more employers are implementing background checks in their hiring processes. These professional background searches involve more than just looking for criminal records—employers also look at individuals’ driving records. Traffic violations, at-fault accidents, and other spots on a driving record can affect a candidate’s chance of getting a job. Read on to learn more about why and how driving records influence hiring decisions.

Driving on the Job

Not all employers pay attention to driving records, but this information is crucial if they’re hiring for a job that requires driving skills. If you’re looking for a driver for your school bus, ambulance, delivery truck, or other driving service, you want someone who is as safe as possible. Companies who hire drivers have a duty to make sure their employees are responsible and reliable behind the wheel. By looking at a potential employee’s driving record, you make sure your drivers can operate in a safe, timely manner. This protects your company’s goods, clients, and reputation.

A Sign of Character

The information on your candidate’s driving record can also tell you more about who they are as a person. For example, someone with a lot of parking or speeding tickets exhibits carelessness behind the wheel, even if they haven’t gotten into any major accidents. If someone is always speeding, can you trust them to keep goods or equipment safe during deliveries? Does your company want to pay for numerous parking tickets on the company vehicle? Drivers with clean records are more likely to take care of themselves, your company’s property, and anyone else who shares the road.

Now that you know how driving records influence hiring decisions, it’s important to keep an open mind about the information you find in an applicant’s history. Marks on a driving record—just like marks on a credit report or criminal background check—can be misunderstandings or mistakes that are in the past. When making a hiring decision, take your candidate’s side of the story into consideration. Once you have all the information, you can make a responsible decision and hire the best candidate possible for your company.