What to ask on the application before an aggression write-up

A reason-for-leaving field will not tell you how the last week sounded. If you ask why they left, you get a mood. If you ask how the last loads ran, whether the truck came home, and who was trying to reach them, you get a scene — or a hole that is already the screen.

Among the reviews carriers left on CDLScan, 13.9% mention aggression or threats. That figure describes those reviews, not drivers in general: carriers write after a bad run, so the share tells you what shows up once someone bothers to report it.

That share is not a reason to reject every short stint. It is a reason to stop letting a home-time story do the work of a last week. The write-ups keep repeating scene language: bad attitude, always late, left the truck, first load, truck stop. Your application should pull that language out of the candidate before you issue a unit.

This is a screening playbook, not a legal memo. What you may ask, store, or decide is your counsel’s problem. If you need a rule, talk to yours. What I can tell you is which questions actually match the words previous carriers already type.

Why a reason-for-leaving field fails

A reason-for-leaving field invites a story. Bad attitude is an event. Those can diverge. A candidate can talk about home time, family, or a dispatcher and never name a load that ran late. A previous carrier can later write that it ended in a shouting match and then the truck sat at a stop.

Verdict language in the reviews — stay away, waste your time, don’t hire — is not the event either. I do not put a stay-away box on an application. I ask for a last week, a last dispatch, a recovery, a phone. The incident language is a scene. How we separate incident from verdict is on the methodology page.

Official reports will not do this work for you. PSP holds crashes and inspections. An MVR holds license events. The Clearinghouse holds program events. Yelling at a dispatcher is not a roadside inspection. A bad attitude is not a test result. Previous-employer forms often hold dates and a rehire box. Hear the last week on the application, before you decide the packet is enough.

The share of reviews mentioning aggression or threats moved from 13.2% in 2018 to 15.1% in 2025. I stop that line at 2025. The wording stayed blunt, and the form still has to ask for it.

Five questions, on the form, in this order

1. When did you start, and when did you last dispatch?

Dates first, because a short stint is the skeleton of both a hard last week and a no-show. If they never dispatched, you are in onboarding — a different screen. If they dispatched and the last day is a Tuesday in the middle of a run, you are in operations. Do not skip this to be polite. A hole between two carriers is not a finding by itself. An unexplained hole plus a last day that is not a yard day is.

2. How did the last week run — loads on time, or always late?

This is the question a reason-for-leaving field cannot absorb. Always late sits in the same neighborhood as bad attitude in these write-ups. Late or missed deliveries sit in 14.9% of aggression reviews. People who had a hard conversation they already disclosed can usually name a late load and a dispatcher. People who yelled and then walked often skip the week and jump to home time. You are not trying to trap them. You are trying to hear whether the last week had a clock.

3. Where was the last truck left, and who recovered it?

An aggression write-up often sits next to an operations ending, not next to a tidy resignation at the yard. An abandoned truck sits in 29.7% of those reviews. Left the truck and a shouting match are often one scene. If the candidate can name a yard, you have one kind of file. If they skip the location, you have another. Loaded-trailer language and first load belong here when they show up.

4. When did you last answer the phone on that job, and who was trying to reach you?

Silence is often the last step you hear about, not the first thing that happened. If the candidate can name the day the phone died, you have a timeline. If they jump to a mood, bring them back to a day and a unit. A crash or damage sits in 17.0% of aggression reviews; theft or money games sit in 6.9%; logbook and hours problems sit in 7.3%. Those are different files that happen to share a hard last week. Do not collapse them into one insult on the form.

5. What will the last carrier write about how that job ended?

Asking only whether they got along catches what the candidate already plans to disclose. Asking what the last carrier will write catches the sentence that never became a report. People who resigned at the yard can usually say the yard will confirm dates. People who left in a shouting match often cannot say what the last desk will type.

I would not ask whether they have a bad attitude. I would not ask for red flags. Both invite a mood. Mood is verdict language. You already know how that sounds, and it is not a fact about the driver.

Companions in the same reviews tell you which extra words to leave room for. In 29.7% of aggression reviews the carrier also mentions an abandoned truck. In 17.0% they also mention a crash or damage. In 14.9% they also mention late or missed deliveries. In 6.1% they also mention refused loads and low miles. The words themselves are in how carriers write about aggression. The climb in the share is in driver aggression screening.

What was already visible on the packet

On an application the warning is rarely the word aggression. It is a short stint, a hole, and a previous carrier who will not say how the last week ended. Ask the candidate to walk the last two exits before you dial the last desk.

Typical sequence, built from how these reviews cluster, not from one person’s file: two carriers in a year. They start. A load runs late. Answers get shorter. Then the language in the next review is bad attitude, always late, left the truck. That sentence will not appear on the MVR you already pulled.

A no-show almost never sits in the same paragraph as this category. If they never dispatched, switch to the empty-chair screen: ticket, orientation, never showed. Do not run an attitude form and assume you covered both.

What to do with the answers

Look the name up before you treat a clean paragraph as a pass. The application is cheaper when you already know whether previous carriers used bad-attitude or left-the-truck. Asking a candidate to contradict a write-up you have not read is how you waste the only live conversation you will get.

If the last two exits are crisp — yard, day, loads on time, who took the keys — keep moving, and still read the name. If the last two exits skip the week and jump to home time, stop. If they never dispatched, switch screens.

If the last carrier will only confirm dates, that is not a pass. It is a reason to read the rest of the name. Check it on CDLScan before you issue a truck. It takes less than a minute. The words you want on the application are already sitting there more often than the reason-for-leaving field will admit.

The longer call playbook is five reference questions that beat rehireable. This page is the form, not the phone.

This is not legal advice. It is a way to stop letting a reason-for-leaving field do a week’s job.

Frequently asked questions

Is a reason-for-leaving field useless here?

It is useful as a story and weak as an event. A reason can disagree with a write-up about a shouting match and a truck that sat at a stop. Ask how the last week ran. Keep the reason field as extra, not as the screen.

Can I store these answers as a safety history?

That is a question for your counsel and your process, not for this page. I am talking about what to ask so you hear the event. What you store is a different job.

What if they refuse to say how the last week ended?

That is information. Then read what other carriers already wrote about the name. A missing last week is not a confession. It is a reason to stop treating the application as complete.

If PSP is clean, do I still need these questions?

Yes. A shouting match is not a roadside inspection. A clean packet means the filed items are clean. It does not mean nobody typed bad attitude.

Why ask where the truck was left on an attitude form?

Because an abandoned truck sits in 29.7% of aggression reviews. Left the truck and a hard last week are often one ending. The location question is cheap and it belongs on this form.

Do official reports replace these questions?

No. PSP, an MVR, and the Clearinghouse hold filings. A bad attitude that never became a report is usually not a filing. Keep the reports. Add the questions.

Where do I look the name up?

On CDLScan, before you issue the truck. The scene language — bad attitude, always late, left the truck — is already written down. Use the application to see if the candidate will say it out loud.