Late loads and refused freight often share a file

A late load in a previous carrier’s write-up is often not a one-off appointment miss. When refused loads and low miles sit in the same file, you are looking at a week that is already coming apart: freight declined, miles falling, then the clock. Treat that pairing as a retention screen, not as two separate attitude problems.

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.

Inside that slice, 9.1% also mention refused loads and low miles. Read the denominator before you use the number. It is 9.1% of late-delivery reviews, not 9.1% of all reviews, and not 9.1% of performance reviews. Flip the pair and the share changes: 24.2% of reviews that mention refused loads and low miles also mention late or missed deliveries. Same overlap, two bases.

That pairing is not random. Refused loads and low miles are 3.7% of all reviews. If late deliveries and refused freight showed up together only by chance, you would expect about 3.7% of late-delivery reviews to also mention refused loads and low miles. The observed share is 9.1% — about 2.5 times the chance rate. Lift is that multiplier. It is not a probability that the next person you dispatch will start turning down freight.

The week around the clock

The write-ups talk about always late, late deliveries, late every load, late pick, constantly late, refusing loads, refused loads, low miles, and home time sitting in the same paragraph. 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 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 temperature of the last sentence.

The companion that dwarfs this pair is abandonment. In 35.7% of late-delivery reviews the carrier also mentions an abandoned truck. Aggression or threats sit in 21.0%. A crash or damage sits in 19.8%. Going unreachable sits in 8.8%. Logbook and hours problems sit in 8.2%. Walking off a loaded trailer sits in 7.3%.

I keep refused freight next to the clock because it is the part of the week you can still ask about before a unit is assigned. A walk-off is the ending. Late loads and refused freight are the middle. The late-delivery trend itself is in late loads as the week before a walk-off. Aggression in the same history is a separate screen; that is what a threat in a carrier review actually means.

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. Do not smooth 2019. It is the low in the completed series, 7.2%. Then the share climbed back, and 2025 is 11.1% — not the 2018 high, not the 2019 trough. How these shares are counted is on the methodology page. Compare percentages inside each year, not year totals.

From the other side of the pair, 24.2% of performance reviews also mention late deliveries. That is the heavier read if you already have refused loads in the file. Always name which base you are standing on.

What the pairing is not

It is not proof that every late load is a driver who refuses freight. Most late-delivery reviews do not also mention refused loads and low miles. 9.1% is a heavy overlap relative to chance, not a majority.

It is also not a CSA score. Late deliveries in these write-ups are an employment complaint: always late, late every load, missed pickups. A recorded crash can sit next to them — 19.8% of late-delivery reviews also mention accident or damage — and that part can show up if it was filed. The refused freight that came with it usually cannot.

I would not read lazy in these reviews as our word. Carriers reach for it. That is their verdict-adjacent heat, not a category we should repeat as a finding. The incident is refusing loads, running late, going home. Stick to that.

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. Always late and refused loads are usually not filings. A clean PSP is doing its job when it is silent on a week of declined freight nobody reported to FMCSA.

A crash in the same review is the exception. That part can show up if it was recorded. The late loads and the refused freight that came with it usually cannot. If you treat the MVR as the whole story, you keep the wreck and throw away the week.

Previous-employer forms are not much better. Eligible for rehire can come back blank while the same desk will later write that the driver was always late and started refusing loads. The behavior lives in carrier-to-carrier memory. Most of that memory never becomes a query result.

Logbook and hours problems sit in 8.2% of late-delivery reviews. That slice can leak into a filing if someone actually falsified logs. Most of this pairing will not. The logbook trend is in logbook mentions that are falling, not gone.

I am not going to pretend this is an independent study. CDLScan is the source, and I write from the data they share. Late deliveries are common enough in what carriers bother to write down, refused freight rides along far above chance, and the packet you already run is not designed to hold most of it.

What was visible before you assigned the load

The pattern I’d watch for is a previous carrier who already used always late, late every load, or refusing loads, 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 give out a dispatch phone.

Typical sequence, built from how these reviews cluster, not from one person’s file: two carriers in a year. Miles look thin. They start. The first week has a late pick. Then loads get declined. Home time becomes the argument. Sometimes the next line is that they left the truck. Sometimes they stay and the clock just keeps missing. People who left cleanly can usually tell you which loads they turned down and why. People who are about to walk often skip the freight and jump to home time.

None of that is a reason to treat every late appointment as a walk-off. It is a reason to run the name before the first live load.

What to do before you dispatch

Look the name up in what previous carriers already wrote. If you see late deliveries and refusing loads in the same history, treat the first week as a supervised start, not as a full assignment.

Ask which loads they will not take, and what the last carrier will say about on-time performance. Then make the call. Five open questions beat a rehire box.

If you already assigned a unit, freeze the next loaded trailer until someone has looked. A clean packet on Monday morning does not tell you whether Friday’s appointment holds. Those are different claims.

The 9.8% share is not a reason to treat every applicant as a late-load risk. It is a reason to stop reading a clean packet as “this person runs on time.” Check the name on CDLScan before the spend. It takes less than a minute.

Frequently asked questions

Does 9.1% mean late loads usually come with refused freight?

No. 9.1% is the share of late-delivery reviews that also mention refused loads and low miles, among reviews carriers left on CDLScan. Most late-delivery write-ups do not include that companion. The pairing is far above chance. It is not a majority.

Why is the other share 24.2%?

Because the base changed. 24.2% of reviews that mention refused loads and low miles also mention late or missed deliveries. Same overlap, counted from the other side. Always name the denominator.

What does lift 2.5 mean here?

Refused loads and low miles are 3.7% of all reviews. Seeing them in 9.1% of late-delivery reviews is about 2.5 times the chance rate. Lift is that multiplier, not the odds on your next dispatch.

Will PSP or an MVR warn me?

Not about the clock and the declined freight. Those reports hold filed crashes, inspections, and license events. Always late and refusing loads are usually not filed there.

Is this the same problem as an abandoned truck?

Often nearby, not the same. 35.7% of late-delivery reviews also mention an abandoned truck. That is the ending you are trying not to buy. Late loads and refused freight are the middle of the week.

What should I ask before I assign a load?

Which freight they will not take, what the last carrier will say about on-time performance, and why the last job ended. Then read the write-ups.

Where do I check the name?

On CDLScan, before the first live load. Previous carriers already wrote this pairing down. You should read it while the truck is still yours.