Abandoned-truck mentions in reviews doubled since 2018

Among the reviews carriers left on CDLScan since 2018, the share that mention an abandoned truck rose from 18.8% in 2018 to 40.4% 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, abandonment is in 33.5% of the reviews — the most common incident category in the set CDLScan shared with me.

The climb is not a straight line

The share of reviews mentioning an abandoned truck ran 18.8% in 2018, 22.6% in 2019, 26.6% in 2020, 23.9% in 2021, 30.1% in 2022, 34.7% in 2023, 38.2% in 2024, and 40.4% in 2025. I stop the trend at 2025. 2026 is still open; using it as an endpoint would fake a drop the year has not earned.

2021 is the break you should not smooth over. It is the only full year the share fell. Then 2022 jumped to 30.1% and the line did not look back. I would not read 2021 as the problem getting better. The same year’s reviews mentioned paid travel with no arrival more often, not less: 3.5% in 2020, 6.1% in 2021. Mentions of a driver going unreachable also rose, from 4.8% to 6.6%. Mid-route walk-offs eased for twelve months. Onboarding losses did not. 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.

What “abandoned the truck” actually looks like

Carriers write about a tractor left at a truck stop, equipment dropped, a driver who went home, a first load that never finished, a truck still under load. The language is physical: left the truck, dropped the truck, abandoned the equipment.

An abandoned truck is not one scene. In 15.0% of abandonment reviews the carrier also mentions an accident or damage — sometimes a wreck and a driver who did not stay with the unit. Another 12.3% also mention aggression, rudeness, or threats. 10.5% also mention late or missed deliveries. 9.4% also mention theft or money games.

The companion I treat as operational is the loaded trailer. In 11.6% of abandonment reviews the carrier also says the driver walked off a loaded trailer. A dry tractor and a loaded box are not the same recovery. That share of all reviews moved from 2.7% in 2018 to 5.3% in 2025. See walking off a loaded trailer. Going unreachable sits in 8.4% of abandonment reviews and, on its own, went from 4.7% of reviews in 2018 to 9.6% in 2025. Silence is usually the last step you hear about. See going unreachable.

The data does not support the cartoon where every abandonment is a cash-advance job. Mentions of a cash advance fell from 5.8% in 2018 to 2.4% in 2025, while abandonment mentions rose. If your screen is “did they request money up front,” you are watching a shrinking slice of a growing problem.

What was visible before the truck sat empty

Abandonment is expensive because it happens after you have already spent: orientation, a ticket, a hotel, 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 short stint, a gap, and a previous carrier who already used the same words: left the truck, went home, dropped it, stopped answering. Those words are not a violation code. I also watch the order of asks — paid travel before the background is done, a cash advance before the first dispatch, a home-time promise already being renegotiated in the interview. None of those is proof. Together with a thin employment history, they are a reason to look the name up before you spend.

The 2021 break is a reminder, not comfort. In a desperate hiring year the reviews leaned toward people who never arrived. When freight cooled, they leaned back toward people who took the truck and left it. Screening only for no-shows will miss the driver who is pleasant at orientation and gone on load two.

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. Travel wanted this week. They start. The first load is late. Dispatch gets shorter answers, then none. The tractor is at a truck stop. In this corpus that is not a once-in-a-career fluke.

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. Leaving a truck at a stop and going home is usually an employment mess, not a filing. Nobody sends that 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 abandoned the truck. The behavior lives in carrier-to-carrier memory, and most of that memory never becomes a report.

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 common in what carriers bother to write down, it has gotten more common, and the packet you already run is not designed to hold it. Longer version: why PSP, DAC, and MVR come back clean on an abandoned truck.

What to do before you spend

Run the name before you buy the ticket. Search what previous carriers wrote, not only what the state and FMCSA stored. If you see left the truck, abandoned equipment, went home under load, or stopped answering, 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. What will the previous carrier say. People who resigned cleanly can usually tell that story without sanding off the location. People who walked often skip the recovery and jump to home time or a family reason. If you already paid travel, freeze the next dollar until someone has looked.

The rising share is not a reason to become paranoid about every applicant. It is a reason to stop treating clean reports as “this person stays with the truck.” Those are different claims. Check the name on CDLScan before the spend. It takes less than a minute.

Frequently asked questions

Does 40.4% mean two in five drivers will abandon a truck?

No. 40.4% is the share of 2025 reviews that mention an abandoned truck, 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 partial-year share is 35.8%, which would look like a drop if you treated it as a full year. The last complete year is 2025 at 40.4%.

What changed in 2021?

The abandonment share fell from 26.6% to 23.9%, the only down year in the completed series, then jumped to 30.1% in 2022. Paid-travel-with-no-arrival mentions rose in that same window. Do not read the dip as a fix.

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. Abandonment is rarely filed.

Is every abandoned truck a theft?

No. Some write-ups sit next to accident or damage, a fight with dispatch, or a loaded trailer and a silent phone. Theft or money games appear in 9.4% of abandonment reviews, not in most of them.

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

Ask where the last truck was left, who picked it up, 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?

A loaded trailer in the same history, and a stretch where the driver went unreachable. Both travel with abandonment often enough to matter. Neither will necessarily hit the reports you already buy.