Paid travel and a no-show often arrive together

Among the reviews carriers left on CDLScan, 6.0% mention paid travel with no arrival — a flight, a bus, a ticket the carrier bought, and a driver who never started. 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, 27.5% also mention a no-show. Read the denominator before you use the number. It is 27.5% of paid-travel reviews, not 27.5% of all reviews, and not 27.5% of no-show reviews. Flip the pair and the share changes: 30.8% of no-show reviews also mention paid travel. Same overlap, two bases.

That pairing is not random. No-shows are 5.3% of all reviews. If paid travel and a no-show showed up together only by chance, you would expect about 5.3% of paid-travel reviews to also mention a no-show. The observed share is 27.5% — about five times the chance rate. Lift is that multiplier. It is not a probability that the next ticket you buy will bounce.

Two clocks, one spend

Paid travel is money you put on the table before the driver has proven they will walk through the door. The write-ups talk about a flight ticket, a plane ticket, a booked flight, a ticket that never got used, sometimes a hotel on the same invoice. The no-show language is simpler: never showed, didn’t show, didn’t make orientation.

Those are not two unrelated failures that happen to share a week. They are often the same week. You buy the seat. The candidate confirms. Monday comes and the chair is empty, or the phone has already gone quiet. Sometimes a drug test sits in the same paragraph. Sometimes the last useful line is that they stopped answering.

I keep drugs-and-alcohol next to this pair without turning the article into a test manual. In 31.3% of paid-travel reviews the carrier also mentions drugs or alcohol. That is a real companion in the write-ups. It is also the one official reports are built to hold. The ticket itself is not.

The share of reviews mentioning paid travel with no arrival rose from 1.7% in 2018 to 5.7% in 2025. I stop that line at 2025; 2026 is still open. No-show mentions moved from 3.7% to 4.9% over the same complete years. The spend got more common. The empty chair did not go away. How these shares are counted is on the methodology page.

What the pairing is not

It is not proof that every ticket is a scam. Most paid-travel reviews do not also mention a no-show. 27.5% is a heavy overlap, not a majority.

It is also not the same population as the driver who takes the truck and leaves it. Only 8.4% of paid-travel reviews also mention an abandoned truck. The person who never arrives and the person who arrives, takes a unit, and walks are mostly different write-ups. Screening for one will not catch the other. That split is the point of two failure populations that barely overlap.

Going unreachable sits in 15.6% of paid-travel reviews. That is the quieter version of the same week: the ticket is bought, then the phone dies, and you find out they never arrived when the hotel asks who is paying night two. See paid travel and going unreachable.

Why the packet you already buy stays quiet

PSP, an MVR, and the Clearinghouse hold what someone filed. A no-show after a paid flight is an accounts-payable problem. It is not a crash, not a roadside inspection, not a license action. A Clearinghouse hit can sit next to it — the data says drugs or alcohol often do — but the empty seat itself never becomes a query result.

Previous-employer forms are not much better here. The last carrier may never have onboarded the person. There is no “eligible for rehire” box for someone who never got a truck. The story lives in the write-up the last recruiter left when they were tired of paying for seats that stayed empty.

A clean packet on Monday morning does not tell you whether the candidate you just ticketed will walk into orientation. Those are different claims.

What was visible before you bought the seat

The pattern I’d watch for is urgency around the ticket and vagueness around the last job. They want the flight this week. The last carrier is a short stint or a hole. References are slow. Official reports are dull, because there is nothing to file yet.

Typical sequence, built from how these reviews cluster, not from one person’s file: you book the flight. They confirm. They stop answering the day before. They never show. Sometimes a test was scheduled and they vanish before it. Sometimes they land, skip orientation, and the ticket is the last money you can find. The composite version of that application is in the application before paid travel and a no-show.

None of that is a reason to stop paying travel for people who need it. It is a reason to run the name before the card is charged.

What to do before the ticket

Look the name up in what previous carriers already wrote. If you see a flight ticket and a never-showed in the same history, treat the next ticket as a decision, not a courtesy.

Ask when they can start without you buying anything. People who are choosing between two real seats can usually wait a few days. People who need the ticket as the job will push the purchase forward and go quiet on the last employer.

If you already bought the seat, freeze the hotel and the advance until someone has looked. Check the name on CDLScan first. It takes less than a minute, and it is where that pairing actually sits.

Frequently asked questions

Does 27.5% mean a paid ticket usually becomes a no-show?

No. 27.5% is the share of paid-travel reviews that also mention a no-show, among reviews carriers left on CDLScan. Most paid-travel write-ups do not include a no-show. The pairing is far above chance. It is not a majority.

Why is the other share 30.8%?

Because the base changed. 30.8% of no-show reviews also mention paid travel. Same overlap, counted from the other side. Always name the denominator.

What does lift 5 mean here?

No-shows are 5.3% of all reviews. Seeing them in 27.5% of paid-travel reviews is about five times the chance rate. Lift is that multiplier, not the odds on your next hire.

Will PSP or an MVR warn me?

Not about the empty chair. Those reports hold filed crashes, inspections, and license events. A ticket you bought and a candidate who never arrived are not filed there.

Is this the same problem as an abandoned truck?

Usually not. Only 8.4% of paid-travel reviews also mention an abandoned truck. The person who never starts and the person who leaves a unit are mostly different populations.

What should I ask before I book?

When they can start if the ticket waits two days, and what the last carrier will say about why they left. Then read the write-ups. Do not let the flight become the background check.

Where do I check the name?

On CDLScan, before the card is charged. Previous carriers already wrote this pairing down. You should read it while the money is still yours.