A drug mention and a silent phone often share a file

A previous carrier who writes that it turned into a drug test problem is not only telling you about a test. The next useful question is whether they also stopped answering the phone. Those two show up together far more often than chance. Treat that pairing as a screening item before you buy a flight or hold a seat, not as two unrelated complaints.

Among the reviews carriers left on CDLScan, 11.7% mention drugs or alcohol. 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.

Inside that slice, 12.2% also mention going unreachable. Read the denominator before you use the number. It is 12.2% of drugs-or-alcohol reviews, not 12.2% of all reviews, and not 12.2% of unresponsive reviews. Flip the pair and the share changes: 17.8% of unresponsive reviews also mention drugs or alcohol. Same overlap, two bases.

That pairing is not random. Going unreachable is 8.0% of all reviews. If a drug mention and a silent phone showed up together only by chance, you would expect about 8.0% of drugs-or-alcohol reviews to also mention going unreachable. The observed share is 12.2% — about 1.53 times the chance rate. Lift is that multiplier. It is not a probability that the next person you fly in will miss a test and then stop answering.

The test, then the phone

The write-ups talk about a drug test, pre employment, test results, never showed, a flight ticket, a plane ticket, stopped answering, answering phone, phone calls, next day, another company, the hiring process. 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 39.3% of drugs-or-alcohol reviews the carrier also writes a verdict. In 38.1% of unresponsive reviews they do the same. 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.

From the drug side, the louder companions dwarf this pair. Paid travel with no arrival sits in 16.0%. A no-show sits in 14.5%. Going unreachable sits in 12.2%. An abandoned truck sits in 10.3%. Aggression or threats sit in 7.5%. Theft or money games sit in 7.0%. A crash or damage sits in 6.4%. The silent phone is not the most common companion. It is the one that turns a missed test into a seat you cannot fill.

From the unresponsive side, an abandoned truck sits in 35.2%. Drugs or alcohol sit in 17.8%. Paid travel with no arrival sits in 11.6%. Late or missed deliveries sit in 10.8%. A crash or damage sits in 10.3%. Aggression or threats sit in 9.6%. A no-show sits in 8.7%. Always name which base you are standing on.

I keep the phone next to the test because the packet you already buy is built for a failed result, not for a candidate who never picks up. A Clearinghouse hit can leak into a filing. Stopped answering usually cannot. The pairing in a carrier write-up is employment memory. Most of that memory never becomes a query result.

The drug-mention trend is in a drug mention in a review. The no-show next to it is in a drug mention and a no-show. The ticket next to it is in paid travel and a drug mention.

The share of reviews mentioning drugs or alcohol ran 13.6% in 2018, 12.1% in 2019, 13.0% in 2020, 14.7% in 2021, 11.8% in 2022, 10.9% in 2023, 10.2% in 2024, and 11.2% in 2025. I stop that line at 2025. 2026 is still open. The mention did not disappear. 2025 is still in the same band as the later years of the completed series.

Going-unreachable mentions ran 4.7% in 2018, 5.0% in 2019, 4.8% in 2020, 6.6% in 2021, 7.4% in 2022, 7.6% in 2023, 8.2% in 2024, and 9.6% in 2025. The drug line eased. The silent-phone line rose. How these shares are counted is on the methodology page. Compare percentages inside each year, not year totals.

What the pairing is not

It is not proof that every drug mention is a ghosted recruiter. Most drugs-or-alcohol reviews do not also mention going unreachable. 12.2% is a heavy overlap relative to chance, not a majority.

It is also not a Clearinghouse result. Drugs or alcohol in these write-ups is an employment complaint: a drug test, test results that never arrived, never showed for the screen. That part can show up if a result was filed. Stopped answering cannot. If you treat the Clearinghouse as the whole story, you keep the test and throw away the week they went quiet.

A no-show in the same review is the ending you are trying not to buy. 14.5% of drugs-or-alcohol reviews also mention a no-show. Paid travel with no arrival sits in 16.0%. The silent phone is often the middle of that week.

Why the packet you already buy stays quiet

PSP, an MVR, and the Clearinghouse hold what someone filed: a roadside inspection, a recorded crash, a failed test, a license action. A drug result may be in that packet. A phone that stopped connecting will not.

Previous-employer forms are not much better. Eligible for rehire can come back blank while the same desk will later write that they never took the drug test and stopped answering. The behavior lives in carrier-to-carrier memory. Most of that memory never becomes a query result.

A clean packet on Monday morning does not tell you whether they will pick up on Friday. Those are different claims.

I am not going to pretend this is an independent study. CDLScan is the source, and I write from the data they share. A drug mention is common enough in what carriers bother to write down, going unreachable rides along far above chance, and the packet you already run is designed for filed results, not for a silent phone.

What was visible before you bought the ticket

The pattern I’d watch for is a previous carrier who already used drug test, never showed, stopped answering, or flight ticket, plus a hole between two recent jobs. Those words are not a violation code. They are a reason to look the name up before you spend.

Typical sequence, built from how these reviews cluster, not from one person’s file: they confirm orientation. You book the flight. The next day they stop answering. The pre-employment drug test never happens. Sometimes they show at another company. Sometimes the next line is that they never showed at all. People who left cleanly can usually tell you how the last screen went and why the last desk could not reach them. People who are about to vanish often skip the test and jump to the phone going dead.

None of that is a reason to treat every missed call as a failed test. It is a reason to run the name before you buy the ticket.

What to do before orientation

Look the name up in what previous carriers already wrote. If you see a drug mention and going unreachable in the same history, do not buy the flight until someone has reached them twice on a number you can verify.

Ask how the last pre-employment drug test went, whether they showed, and what that desk will say about phone calls. Then make the call. Five open questions beat a rehire box.

If you already booked the ticket, freeze the seat until someone has looked. A clean packet on Monday morning does not tell you whether they will pick up. Those are different claims.

The 11.7% share is not a reason to treat every applicant as a drug risk. It is a reason to stop reading a clean Clearinghouse as “this person will answer the phone.” Check the name on CDLScan before the spend. It takes less than a minute.

Frequently asked questions

Does 12.2% mean a drug mention usually comes with a silent phone?

No. 12.2% is the share of drugs-or-alcohol reviews that also mention going unreachable, among reviews carriers left on CDLScan. Most drug write-ups do not include that companion. The pairing is far above chance. It is not a majority.

Why is the other share 17.8%?

Because the base changed. 17.8% of unresponsive reviews also mention drugs or alcohol. Same overlap, counted from the other side. Always name the denominator.

What does lift 1.53 mean here?

Going unreachable is 8.0% of all reviews. Seeing it in 12.2% of drugs-or-alcohol reviews is about 1.53 times the chance rate. Lift is that multiplier, not the odds on your next orientation seat.

Will the Clearinghouse warn me?

Sometimes about a filed result. Not about the phone. Those reports hold tests that were recorded. Stopped answering is not filed there.

Is this the same problem as a no-show?

Often nearby, not the same. 14.5% of drugs-or-alcohol reviews also mention a no-show. 16.0% also mention paid travel with no arrival. The silent phone is the middle of that week.

What should I ask before I buy a ticket?

How the last pre-employment drug test went, whether they showed, and why the last desk could not reach them. Then read the write-ups.

Where do I check the name?

On CDLScan, before you book the flight. Previous carriers already wrote this pairing down. You should read it while the seat is still empty.