Theft in a carrier review is usually not a filing

A missing fuel swipe, a tablet that never comes back, or a tractor that left and did not return is usually an employment mess, not a police file you already purchased. If you wait for PSP or an MVR to flag theft, you will hire the packet and meet the missing equipment later. The write-ups other carriers already left are where this shows up.

Among the reviews carriers left on CDLScan, 8.8% mention theft or money games. 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.

A 2020 peak, then a new floor

The share of reviews mentioning theft or money games ran 6.6% in 2018, 9.0% in 2019, 10.5% in 2020, 7.8% in 2021, 9.1% in 2022, 9.4% in 2023, 9.5% in 2024, and 9.0% in 2025. I stop that line at 2025. 2026 is still open; using it as an endpoint would fake a drop the year has not earned.

2020 is the break you should not smooth over. It is the high in the completed series, 10.5%. 2021 is the dip, 7.8%. Then the share settled in a band around 9% and stayed there. I would not read 2021 as the problem getting better, and I would not read 2020 as the only year that mattered. After 2018 the floor moved up, 2020 overshot, and 2025 is still 9.0% — not back at 6.6%. How these shares are counted is on the methodology page. Compare percentages inside each year, not year totals: the corpus grew, and a bigger pile of reviews is not a finding.

From 6.6% to 9.0% is not a doubling. It is a stubborn lift. The useful reading is that theft mentions refused to return to the old floor.

What sits in the same write-up

The language is equipment and money. Carriers write about a stole truck, stole fuel, a fuel card, a stole tablet, stole equipment, a cash advance next to a missing unit, a flight ticket next to money that did not come back, a first load that ended with the truck gone. That is the incident register.

Stay away and waste your time are a different register. Those are the author’s recommendation to the next recruiter, not a description of what the driver did. In 37.4% of theft reviews the carrier also writes a verdict. That is a fact about how these reviews end, not a fact about the driver. Read the scene. Do not hire off the temperature of the last sentence.

The companion that matters most is abandonment. In 35.5% of theft reviews the carrier also mentions an abandoned truck. That pairing is why this category belongs next to abandoned-truck mentions over eight years, not in a folder labeled crime. 35.5% is a heavy overlap, not a majority. Screening for a walk-off will not catch every money game, and screening for a money game will not catch every walk-off. A write-up with both is a stop.

Other companions are operational. In 13.7% of theft reviews the carrier also mentions a crash or damage. In 10.8% they also mention aggression or threats. In 9.2% they also mention drugs or alcohol. In 8.7% they also mention equipment or a fuel card never returned. Logbook and hours problems sit in 7.9%. Paid travel with no arrival sits in 7.2%.

I read that cluster as a week, not as a mugshot. A unit is assigned. A fuel card is issued. Dispatch gets shorter answers. Sometimes the truck is in something. Sometimes the next line is that they left the truck. Sometimes the tablet, the card, or the tractor does not come back. That is not the cartoon where every theft review is a stolen truck on a police report. Many of these write-ups never leave the employment file.

What was visible before you handed over a card

The pattern I’d watch for is the order of asks and a previous carrier who already used stole fuel, fuel card, stole tablet, or left with the truck. Those words are not a violation code. They are a reason to look the name up before you issue equipment.

Typical sequence, built from how these reviews cluster, not from one person’s file: two carriers in a year and a hole between them. Slow references. They start. A cash advance or a fuel card comes early. The first load is messy. Then the equipment is gone, or the card is spent, or the truck is not where dispatch left it. People who left cleanly can usually tell you where the unit was parked and who took the card back. People who walked often skip the inventory and jump to home time.

A cash advance in the same history is a signal, not the whole screen. Mentions of a cash advance have been falling while theft mentions have not. If your only stop is “did they ask for money on day one,” you are watching a shrinking slice of a problem that found other doors.

Why the reports you already buy stay quiet

PSP, DAC, MVR, and the Clearinghouse hold what someone filed: a roadside inspection, a recorded crash, a failed test, a license action. A fuel card run up and a tablet that never came back are usually not filings. A tractor taken home and stripped might become a police report. Many of these write-ups never do. A clean PSP is doing its job when it is silent on an employment theft nobody reported to FMCSA.

A crash in the same review is the exception. 13.7% of theft reviews also mention accident or damage. That part can show up if it was recorded. The missing card that came with it usually cannot. If you treat the MVR as the whole story, you keep the wreck and throw away the inventory.

Previous-employer forms are not much better. Eligible for rehire can come back blank while the same desk will later write that the driver stole fuel or left with equipment. The behavior lives in carrier-to-carrier memory. Most of that memory never becomes a query result. The same gap, on a different incident, is why official reports miss an abandoned truck.

I am not going to pretend this is an independent study. CDLScan is the source, and I write from the data they share. Theft or money games are common enough in what carriers bother to write down, the floor moved up after 2018, and the packet you already run is not designed to hold most of it.

What to do before you spend

Run the name before you issue a fuel card or a tablet. Search what previous carriers wrote, not only what the state and FMCSA stored. If you see stole fuel, fuel card, stole tablet, stole equipment, or a truck that did not come back, treat that as a stop even when the MVR is dull.

Ask the candidate to walk the last inventory. Where was the truck parked. Who took the card back. What will the previous carrier say. Then make the call. Five open questions beat a rehire box; the version I use is in the reference questions that beat eligible-for-rehire.

If you already assigned a unit, freeze the next piece of equipment until someone has looked. A clean packet on Monday morning does not tell you whether the tablet comes back on Friday. Those are different claims.

The 8.8% share is not a reason to treat every applicant as a theft risk. It is a reason to stop reading a clean packet as “this person returns the card.” Check the name on CDLScan before the spend. It takes less than a minute.

Frequently asked questions

Does 9.0% mean about one in eleven drivers will steal from you?

No. 9.0% is the share of 2025 reviews that mention theft or money games, among reviews carriers left on CDLScan. Carriers write after a bad run. It is not a rate for all CDL holders.

Why ignore 2026 if the year is already on the chart?

Because 2026 is incomplete. The last complete year is 2025 at 9.0%. Using a partial year as an endpoint would fake a drop the year has not earned.

What happened in 2020 and 2021?

2020 is the high at 10.5%. 2021 dipped to 7.8%. Then the share settled around 9% and stayed there. Do not smooth the peak, and do not read the dip as a fix.

Is every theft review a stolen truck?

No. Carriers also write about fuel, a fuel card, a tablet, equipment that never came back, and money games next to a walk-off. A police file is the exception, not the template.

If PSP and MVR are clean, can I skip carrier reviews?

You can, and you will miss the class of problem these reviews are full of. Clean official reports mean the filed items are clean. Most employment theft is not filed with FMCSA.

What should I ask before I issue a fuel card?

Ask where the last truck was parked, who collected the card, and what the previous carrier will say if you call. Then go read what previous carriers already wrote.

Which related signal is worth a second screen?

An abandoned truck in the same history, and equipment or a fuel card that never came back. Both travel with theft mentions often enough to matter. Neither will necessarily hit the reports you already buy.