How to Hire a Driver

If you ever think that hiring a driver for a one-time project isn't a big deal, keep H.P. Clare of Fremont, Nebraska, at the forefront of your mind. The sheep shearer hired a driver to accompany him to a major job in Bunceton, Missouri. Clare would drive his car; the man he hired got behind the wheel of his truck. Everything was going just ducky for awhile, until late in the trip when Clare looked in his rearview mirror and saw nobody following him, which is how the distraught sheep shearer eventually came to fill out a police report.

The year was 1931, but it could have been any year. The newspaper archives are filled with similar sad tales, like the one reported by the Associated Press in 2000. The owners of a trucking company based in Fenton, Missouri, hired a driver to haul some goods to Orlando, Florida. He left with a truck full of donated clothes and a $40,000 backhoe, only to call the headquarters three days later to report that he had met some friends and was running behind. Not long afterwards, the driver had disappeared off the map, and the company found themselves trying to convince authorities to help them. Nobody would—at least not at first—because the owners of the trucking business couldn't prove that their vehicle had been stolen, just that they had hired a lousy employee.

Even for businesses that don't regularly haul goods from one region to another, it's almost inevitable that at some point in the life of your business, you'll need or want to hire a driver, perhaps in order to transport guests, employees or customers from one venue to another, or maybe you'll have something very big to ship, something that can't just be wrapped up and sent on a UPS truck.

Chances are, too, that if you need to hire a driver, you can give it no real thought and just grab the first person with a driver's license that comes along. Odds are, that's the way to go. But since life and work doesn't always transpire the way we hope, it's always a good idea to consider a few issues first.

Check to make sure that your potential driver has a license. As most business people probably know, it isn't just a driver's license you need to be concerned about, but also a commercial driver's license (CDL); that is, if you're hiring someone to be behind the wheel of a large truck or bus. If your driver is steering a large truck or bus, with a gross vehicle weight rating of over 26,100 pounds, and doesn't have a CDL, that's illegal. If your driver is in a vehicle designed to carry 16 or more passengers that, too, requires a commercial license. So does hauling any sort of hazardous materials.

And if you want to impress your friends at a party, drivers have been required to have a CDL, since April 1, 1992. (Actually, flaunt that little factoid, and your friends will probably just think you're a geek.)

Check your driver's driving record. Just because he or she has a license, doesn't mean he or she is a very good driver. Think about the clod the other day on the Interstate who didn't signal and almost careened into you. He probably had a valid license, but so what? You wouldn't hire him to shine your shoes.

Do a background check for a criminal record. Or did you already forget the name H.P. Clare?

Consider going to a company that specializes in drivers for hire. A freelance driver might be excellent and cheaper, but if you don't have much time or the patience to vet anyone, odds are good that a reputable, established company will have thought through everything driving-related a hundred times.

Of course, if you want to hire a driver full-time and become part of your company, that's a whole new box of red tape courtesy of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which has a roster of requirements that you have to consider depending on your industry. So let's not go there (but if that is your intent, Foley Services is worth checking out; they're a company that has one goal – making sure you're compliant with the Department of Transporation's regulations).

If you're just hiring a driver contractually and feel that his or her credentials are reputable, you're probably good to go. That said, if this is a major expedition with some serious stakes involved—like your driver is going to be in contact with some important clients of yours—then there are really three questions you should ask yourself, advises Adam Garcia, who as CEO of Garcia Express, owns and oversees a fleet of 40 trucks that services clients in the southwest and transports cargo across the country.

• How will the driver represent our company? • Will he/she be a good partner or manager? • Is the driver self-motivated?

"Those questions are important to consider," says Garcia, who has been in the business since 1996, "because the driver will be representing the business owner's company, interacting with their customers and will be responsible for the safe transportation of the cargo. A small business owner has no control how the driver interacts with their customers, and the driver can make or break an ongoing business relationship -- as well as establish new business relationships."

He or she might also add a lot of unnecessary expenses to your trip, if they don't know what they're doing, adds Garcia. "Hiring a driver is not only about a driver's driving experience, but their management abilities as well. A driver must be self-motivated and self-disciplined."

Of course, things can go wrong even with the best drivers behind the wheel. James Fitzgerald—if he's still around—could tell anyone that. Fitzgerald was a full-time sanitation staff worker with the city of Pittsburgh, and in 1971, his garbage truck slid on an icy boulevard and overturned on the downtown streets. Then it collided with a car. After it was attached to a hook to be towed, the garbage truck's engine somehow turned on, broke free and drove by itself, through a fence, knocked aside a parked station wagon and then plunged into the Alleghany River. Then it sank.

Making sure that your driver and any of your company's belongings is well-insured is also a good idea.

Geoff Williams is a freelance journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).