I got approved for Fed Ex CC today.
KH
I have known contractors that FedEx that have had their leases terminated that Panther snapped right up. I imagine it is a two way street on this issue.
If it has become a two way street, that is a recent development, and I am not convinced that it is a two way street. It does not make sense to me that, as intensely focused on CSA compliance as it is, FDCC would also bring in a driver who has a violation that disqualifies him with Panther.
While no points follow a new driver into a new carrier, carriers also know that one of the best predictors of future violations is a record of past violations. A carrier that cares as deeply about CSA as FDCC does, would not be inclined to bring a bad-record driver in for that reason.
A host of maybes come to mind. Maybe the violation was not the real reason the person was rejected at Panther. Maybe the "approval" the driver got at FDCC was the kind that is given before the background investigation is complete. I know of many cases where fleet owners got drivers so far in the application process only to have the driver rejected after all the info is in. Maybe the driver did a better job in fully explaining the incident to FedEx, such that it was not as bad as Panther thought. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Again, it makes absolutely no sense to me that FDCC would accept a driver that another carrier rejected because an incident deemed serious enough to prompt the rejection. There has to be more to the story that we cannot know without full access to the driver's record and internal workings of the two carriers in question.
What I know for sure is that safety takes priority at FDCC. It is theoretically possible that that has changed but I will need more information than what is presented in this thread to seriously entertain that theory.
It absolutely is a two way street when it comes to contractors and drivers changing carriers for non-safety reasons. It is not at all unusual to see FedEx Custom Critical trucks in the Panther lot and Panther trucks in the FedEx Custom Critical lot when orientation classes are going on. Drivers change carriers for all sorts of reasons.
But when it comes to safety, I would be shocked to learn that FDCC has begun to accept drivers that other carriers have rejected for safety reasons. I simply cannot believe that would happen. I am open, of course, to being proven wrong, but I will expect facts, not theories or innuendo from anyone who would try to do so.
There is one exception. I can see FDCC accepting a driver who was terminated at Landstar Express America for safety reasons. Landstar is quicker to terminate drivers than many carriers and for less reason (this from two people I know who used to work as safety people at Landstar). A quick comparison of FDCC and Landstar SMS numbers bears that out. Landstar's numbers are superior across the board (and they somehow managed to do with without EOBR's).
