Late loads in reviews are often the week before a walk-off

A late pickup is easy to file under performance and keep hiring. In the write-ups carriers actually leave, late or missed deliveries often sit in the same week as a fight with dispatch or a truck that does not come back. If you treat lateness as a coaching issue and wait for a crash or a failed test, you will miss the week the file was already describing.

Among the reviews carriers left on CDLScan, 9.8% mention late or missed deliveries. 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.

2019 is the break, not a smooth decline

The share of reviews mentioning late or missed deliveries ran 12.8% in 2018, 7.2% in 2019, 11.4% in 2020, 9.6% in 2021, 8.9% in 2022, 8.6% in 2023, 9.9% in 2024, and 11.1% 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.

2019 is the break you should not smooth over. The share fell from 12.8% to 7.2% in a single complete year, then bounced to 11.4% in 2020. From there it eased into the high 8s, then climbed again: 9.9% in 2024, 11.1% in 2025. From 12.8% to 11.1% looks like a mild decline if you only keep the endpoints. The useful reading is the hole in 2019 and the climb back. I would not call this solved. 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.

This is not the doubling you see on abandoned-truck mentions. It is a stubborn operational complaint that never left, and 2025 is closer to 2018 than to the 2019 low.

What sits in the same write-up

The language is clocks. Carriers write about always late, late deliveries, late every load, late pickup, constantly late, late loads, every load, home time, a truck stop, a first load that did not move. That is the incident register.

Stay away is a different register. In 36.3% of late-delivery 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 last sentence.

The companions that matter for hiring are not “slow.” In 35.7% of late-delivery reviews the carrier also mentions an abandoned truck. In 21.0% they also mention aggression or threats. In 19.8% they also mention a crash or damage. Refused loads and low miles sit in 9.1%. Going unreachable sits in 8.8%. Logbook and hours problems sit in 8.2%. Walking off a loaded trailer sits in 7.3%.

I read that cluster as a week. Dispatch gets shorter answers. A pickup slips. Someone yells. Sometimes the truck is in something. Sometimes the next line is that they left the truck. That pairing is why this category belongs next to aggression in carrier reviews and abandoned-truck mentions over eight years, not in a folder labeled on-time percentage. 35.7% is a heavy overlap, not a majority. Screening for lateness will not catch every walk-off. Screening for a walk-off will not catch every late week. A write-up with both is a stop, not a coaching note.

A crash in the same review is the part that can become a report. 19.8% is not most of the slice, but it is large enough that “always late” and “put the truck into something” are not strangers. If you keep the wreck and throw away the week of slipped pickups, you kept the filing and lost the pattern.

What was visible before the load sat

The pattern I’d watch for is a short stint, a previous carrier who already used always late, late every load, or constantly late, and a radio that was already getting shorter. Those words are not a violation code. They are a reason to look the name up before you assign a tight appointment.

Typical sequence, built from how these reviews cluster, not from one person’s file: two carriers in a year and a hole between them. They start. The first load is late. Home time gets renegotiated. Dispatch gets loud. Sometimes there is a crash in the same week. Sometimes the tractor is at a truck stop. People who left cleanly can usually tell you which appointments slipped and who they called. People who walked often skip the appointments and jump to home time.

I would not treat one late load as a walk-off. I would treat a history of always late next to a fight or a silent phone as a different file than a single detention. The 2019 hole is a reminder that this complaint moves with freight and with what carriers bother to write down. It is not a reason to ignore 11.1% in 2025.

Why the reports you already buy stay quiet

PSP, DAC, MVR, and the Clearinghouse hold what someone filed. Running late on a pickup is not a filing. A fight with dispatch is not a filing. Leaving the truck after a week of slipped loads is usually not a filing either. A clean PSP is doing its job when it is silent on this.

The crash exception still holds. If the same week produced a recorded accident, the MVR or PSP may show the wreck and still hide the late week that came before it. Previous-employer forms hide both. Eligible for rehire can come back blank while the same desk will later write that the driver was always late and then left the truck. Five open questions beat that box; the version I use is in the reference questions that beat eligible-for-rehire.

I am not going to pretend this is an independent study. CDLScan is the source, and I write from the data they share. Late or missed deliveries are common in what carriers bother to write down, they did not fade, and the packet you already run is not designed to hold them.

What to do before you spend

Run the name before you assign a tight appointment. Search what previous carriers wrote, not only what the state and FMCSA stored. If you see always late, late every load, or constantly late in the same history as an abandoned truck, a fight, or a wreck, treat that as a stop even when the MVR is dull.

Ask the candidate to walk the last two weeks of work without the ending they prefer. Which pickups slipped. What dispatch said. What the previous carrier will say if you call. Then make the call.

If you already assigned a load, freeze the next tight appointment until someone has looked. A clean packet on Monday morning does not tell you whether this person keeps appointments on Tuesday. Those are different claims.

The 9.8% share is not a reason to reject every driver who has ever sat on detention. It is a reason to stop reading a clean packet as “this person runs on time and stays with the truck.” Check the name on CDLScan before the spend. It takes less than a minute.

Frequently asked questions

Does 11.1% mean about one in nine drivers will run late?

No. 11.1% is the share of 2025 reviews that mention late or missed deliveries, 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 11.1%. Using a partial year as an endpoint would fake a drop the year has not earned.

What happened in 2019?

The share fell from 12.8% to 7.2%, then bounced to 11.4% in 2020. Do not smooth that hole. Endpoints of 12.8% and 11.1% hide it.

Is lateness just a performance issue?

Sometimes. In these reviews it often sits next to an abandoned truck (35.7%), aggression or threats (21.0%), or a crash or damage (19.8%). Read the week, not the KPI.

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. A late week is rarely filed.

What should I ask if the last job looks short?

Ask which appointments slipped, what dispatch said, 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 aggression or threats in the same week. Both travel with late-delivery mentions often enough to matter. Neither will necessarily hit the reports you already buy.