Quit-without-notice mentions nearly quadrupled

A driver who quits without notice is not the same as a no-show. They already had the keys. What you lost is a truck that may still be on the road, a customer who expected a delivery, and a recovery you did not staff. If your screen only looks for people who never arrived, you will miss the name that started, then left without saying so.

Among the reviews carriers left on CDLScan since 2018, the share that mention quitting without notice rose from 1.0% in 2018 to 3.9% in 2025. Those figures describe the reviews, not drivers in general: carriers write when something went wrong, so the shares tell you what shows up once someone bothers to report it. Across the full period, quitting without notice is in 3.2% of the reviews in the set CDLScan shared with me.

The climb is not a straight line

The share of reviews mentioning a quit without notice ran 1.0% in 2018, 4.3% in 2019, 2.8% in 2020, 2.3% in 2021, 3.1% in 2022, 2.7% in 2023, 3.1% in 2024, and 3.9% in 2025. I stop the trend at 2025. 2026 is still open; using it as an endpoint would claim a rise the year has not earned.

2019 is the break you should not smooth over. The share jumped from 1.0% to 4.3% in a single year, then settled in a 2–3% band and climbed again into 2025. That first spike is not a rounding error. Whatever changed in how carriers wrote about a no-notice exit, it did not go back to the 2018 floor. How we count these shares 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 the 2020–2021 dip as the problem getting better. Those years sit above 2018. The later climb to 3.9% in 2025 is a return toward the 2019 peak, not a new category appearing from nowhere.

What “quit without notice” actually looks like

Carriers write about a driver who quit without notice, left without notice, left the company without saying so, dropped the truck, or left the equipment. The language sits next to an abandoned truck, a truck and trailer, a loaded trailer, and a unit left behind. This is a mid-route or mid-stint exit, not a missed orientation.

The companions make that plain. In 49.3% of these reviews the carrier also mentions an abandoned truck. That is the strongest pairing in this cluster: a no-notice quit and a walk-off are often the same story told from two ends. In 16.2% they also mention a crash or damage. In 13.0% they also mention aggression, rudeness, or threats. In 10.5% they also mention late or missed deliveries. In 8.8% they also mention a driver going unreachable. In 7.9% they also mention walking off a loaded trailer.

Read those companions as sequence, not as one personality type. A late load, then a fight with dispatch, then a truck left at a stop with no call, is a different recovery from a quiet resignation that never made it into the file. The first one costs you a customer and a tractor hunt. The second one costs you a replacement. Both show up next to “without notice.”

A stay-away recommendation sits in 24.4% of these reviews — lower than in no-show or unresponsive write-ups. That is still the author’s verdict, not a description of the driver. I treat it as a signal that the desk was angry enough to write, not as a fact you can put in a file.

What was visible before they left without saying so

A no-notice quit is expensive because it happens after you have already spent: orientation, a truck assigned, sometimes a loaded customer. The useful question is what in the file should have slowed you down.

The pattern I’d watch for is a previous carrier who already used the same words: quit without notice, left without notice, dropped the truck, left the company. Those words are not a violation code. I also watch the order of asks — a start date this week, home time already being renegotiated in the interview, a phone that already drops during recruiting. None of those is proof. Together with a thin employment history, they are a reason to look the name up before you dispatch.

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. The first load is late. Dispatch gets shorter answers, then none. The tractor is at a truck stop. Nobody called in a resignation. In this corpus that is not a once-in-a-career fluke.

Do not collapse this into the no-show screen you already run. A no-show never took the keys. A no-notice quit often did, and in half of these reviews the carrier also says they abandoned the truck. Longer on that walk-off: abandoned-truck mentions in reviews. Longer on a loaded box: walking off a loaded trailer. Longer on the silent phone that often comes first: going unreachable.

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 previous-employer reply that actually got answered. Quitting without notice is an employment mess, not a filing. Nobody sends a missing resignation to FMCSA. A clean PSP is doing its job when it is silent on this.

Previous-employer calls should catch it and often do not. The last carrier is busy, cautious, or answers the regulation and not the question you meant. “Eligible for rehire” can come back blank while the same desk will later say the driver left without notice. The behavior lives in carrier-to-carrier memory, and most of that memory never becomes a report. Longer version: why PSP comes back clean on an abandoned truck.

That is the argument for looking the name up in reviews other carriers already left. I am not going to pretend this is an independent study. CDLScan is the source, and I write from the data they share. This problem is more common in what carriers bother to write down than it was in 2018, and the packet you already run is not designed to hold it.

What to do before you hand over the keys

Run the name before you dispatch. Search what previous carriers wrote, not only what the state and FMCSA stored. If you see quit without notice, left without notice, or dropped the truck, treat that as a stop even when the MVR is dull.

Ask the candidate to walk the last two exits. Where did they leave the truck. Who recovered it. Did they call in. What will the previous carrier say if you call today. People who resigned cleanly can usually tell that story without sanding off the location and the last phone call. People who left without notice often skip the recovery and jump to home time or a family reason.

If they are already on a load, the question is not “are they eligible for rehire.” The question is whether anyone in the last year already wrote that this name quit without saying so.

The rising share is not a reason to become paranoid about every applicant who wants to start this week. It is a reason to stop treating a clean PSP as “this person will give two weeks.” Those are different claims. Check the name on CDLScan before the spend. It takes less than a minute.

Frequently asked questions

Does 3.9% mean one in twenty-five drivers will quit without notice?

No. 3.9% is the share of 2025 reviews that mention quitting without notice, 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. Using a partial year as an endpoint would fake a rise the year has not earned. The last complete year is 2025 at 3.9%.

What changed in 2019?

The share jumped from 1.0% to 4.3% in a single year, then settled above the 2018 floor and climbed again into 2025. Do not smooth that spike. Whatever changed in how carriers wrote about a no-notice exit, it did not go back.

Is quitting without notice the same as abandoning the truck?

Almost half the time in this corpus, the same review mentions both: 49.3%. That is a real companion, not a coincidence. Screen both. One is a missing resignation. The other is a unit you have to recover.

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 no-notice quit is rarely filed.

What should I ask on the call if the timeline looks thin?

Ask where the last truck was left, who picked it up, whether they called in, 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 a stretch where the driver went unreachable. Both travel with a no-notice quit often enough to matter. Neither will necessarily hit the reports you already buy.