A fuel card that never comes back is not a filing

A fuel card, a tablet, or a tractor that never comes back is an inventory problem, not a query result. If you wait for PSP or an MVR to flag it, you will issue the card and meet the missing equipment later. Other carriers already wrote this down; the moment to read them is before the card is charged.

Among the reviews carriers left on CDLScan, 3.7% mention equipment or a fuel card never returned. 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 2019 dip, then a higher floor

The share of reviews mentioning equipment or a fuel card never returned ran 2.3% in 2018, 1.6% in 2019, 3.2% in 2020, 2.6% in 2021, 3.8% in 2022, 4.5% in 2023, 4.5% in 2024, and 3.8% 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.

Do not smooth 2019. It is the low in the completed series, 1.6%. 2020 jumps to 3.2%. 2021 dips to 2.6%, then 2022–2024 sit at 3.8–4.5%, and 2025 is still 3.8% — not back at 2.3%, and nowhere near 1.6%. From 2.3% to 3.8% is not a doubling. It is a stubborn lift after a one-year trough. 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.

I would not read 2019 as the problem getting better, and I would not read 2023–2024 as a new crisis. After 2019 the floor moved up, and 2025 is still on that floor.

What sits in the same write-up

The language is inventory. Carriers write about a fuel card, return truck, return equipment, left equipment, didn’t return, stole fuel, a cash advance next to a missing unit, a truck that went home and never came back. 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 28.5% of equipment-return 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 36.6% of equipment-return 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. 36.6% is a heavy overlap, not a majority. Screening for a walk-off will not catch every missing card, and screening for a missing card will not catch every walk-off. A write-up with both is a stop.

Theft sits next to it. In 20.6% of equipment-return reviews the carrier also mentions theft or money games. Flip the pair and the share changes: 8.7% of theft reviews also mention equipment or a fuel card never returned. Same overlap, two bases. Always name the denominator. The theft side of that pairing is in theft mentions that never become a filing.

Other companions are operational. In 16.2% of equipment-return reviews the carrier also mentions aggression or threats. In 14.4% they also mention a crash or damage. In 11.4% they also mention late or missed deliveries. Logbook and hours problems sit in 9.0%. Going unreachable sits in 8.1%.

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 left. Sometimes the next line is that they went home. Sometimes the card, the tablet, or the tractor does not come back. That is not the cartoon where every missing-card review is a stolen truck on a police report. Many of these write-ups never leave the employment file.

A cash advance in the same history is a signal, not the whole screen. Mentions of a cash advance have been falling while equipment-return 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. That shrinking signal is the cash-advance request in reviews.

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 fuel card, didn’t return, left equipment, or return 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 fuel card or a tablet comes early. The first load is messy, or they ask for home time before the inventory is closed. 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.

None of that is a reason to stop issuing cards. It is a reason to run the name before the card is charged.

Why the reports you already buy stay quiet

PSP, an 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 inventory nobody reported to FMCSA.

A crash in the same review is the exception. 14.4% of equipment-return 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 didn’t return the truck or left with the fuel card. 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. Equipment or a fuel card never returned is common enough in what carriers bother to write down, the floor moved up after 2019, 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 fuel card, didn’t return, left equipment, return truck, 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.

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 3.7% share is not a reason to treat every applicant as an equipment 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 3.8% mean about one in twenty-six drivers will keep your card?

No. 3.8% is the share of 2025 reviews that mention equipment or a fuel card never returned, 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 3.8%. Using a partial year as an endpoint would fake a drop the year has not earned.

What happened in 2019 and 2020?

2019 is the low at 1.6%. 2020 jumps to 3.2%. Then the share settled in a higher band and 2025 is still 3.8%. Do not smooth the trough, and do not read 2019 as a fix.

Is every missing-card review a stolen truck?

No. Carriers also write about a fuel card, a tablet, equipment that never came back, and a truck that went home. 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 missing equipment 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 theft or money games. Both travel with equipment-return mentions often enough to matter. Neither will necessarily hit the reports you already buy.