Does J.B. Hunt hire people with felonies?

What J.B. Hunt has said

J.B. Hunt hasn't published a policy on hiring people with criminal records that we could find, and it isn't on the Second Chance Business Coalition member list. Its 2025 safety summary says non-driver employees, company drivers and contractors under its motor carrier authority must take a hair follicle drug test during hiring where the law allows, and drivers also take federally required urine tests. For current drivers, J.B. Hunt says it reviews driving records every year and uses an outside alert service that flags license problems, violations and possible legal or criminal issues.

We didn't find a public statement from J.B. Hunt about hiring people with records: not on its careers site, in its reports, or in its announcements. That doesn't mean it won't hire you. It means there's nothing on the record to point to.

Does J.B. Hunt do background checks?

J.B. Hunt runs background checks for some roles. J.B. Hunt's pages don't describe a background check during hiring, criminal or otherwise. For drivers on the job, its safety summary (updated August 2025) says it reviews motor vehicle records and safety records once a year and uses a third-party alert system that notifies it of license suspensions, collisions, moving violations and other possible legal or criminal issues. Its driver pre-qualify form asks how many moving violations and preventable accidents you've had in the past 3 years and how many DUI/DWIs in the past 5 years, but doesn't say what counts against you.^1,2

• Driving record

• How long a background check takes

Does J.B. Hunt drug test?

J.B. Hunt drug tests applicants. J.B. Hunt's safety summary says that during hiring, all non-driver employees, company drivers and contractors operating under its motor carrier authority must complete a hair follicle drug test where federal, state and local laws allow it. Company drivers and those contractors also take urine drug tests under federal DOT rules (49 CFR Part 382), and J.B. Hunt says it runs random hair tests as well as random DOT tests.^1,3

Hiring programs

• Apprenticeship Program

  Paid on-the-job training for people who recently earned a Class A CDL but have no experience: six weeks with a J.B. Hunt driver trainer, offered for select jobs and locations, with a chance to move into a regular driving job afterward. J.B. Hunt says it doesn't run a CDL school or reimburse CDL tuition. It isn't described as a second-chance program.⁴

Rules for specific jobs

• Company truck drivers

  J.B. Hunt's driver FAQ says most company driving jobs need at least three months of Class A experience, and that its Final Mile Services unit has straight truck jobs (delivering and installing appliances in a box truck) that don't need a CDL.⁴

• CDL truck drivers (federal rule)

  FMCSA says all CDL drivers who operate commercial motor vehicles on public roads are subject to DOT drug and alcohol testing, including pre-employment, random, post-accident and reasonable-suspicion tests, and an employer must receive a negative drug test before the driver operates a commercial vehicle.³

• CDL truck drivers (federal rule)

  Federal rules require every motor carrier, within 30 days of a driver's start date, to get the driver's motor vehicle record for the past 3 years from each state that licensed them and to check their safety performance history with DOT-regulated employers over the past 3 years.⁵

• CDL truck drivers (federal rule)

  FMCSA's Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse says a driver must consent before an employer can view their Clearinghouse record, and a driver with a drug or alcohol program violation can't drive a commercial vehicle for any DOT-regulated employer until they finish the return-to-duty process.⁶

Your rights, and how far back a check can go

• Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an employer must get your written permission before it gets a background report about you from a background screening company.^10,11,12
• Before an employer decides not to hire, keep, or promote you because of something in a background report, it must give you a copy of the report and a document called "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act."^10,11
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^10,13
• The FCRA's seven-year limit does not apply to criminal convictions, so under federal law a conviction can show up on a background report no matter how old it is.^14,15
• Under the FCRA, background and credit reports generally cannot include arrest records, civil lawsuits, or civil judgments that are more than seven years old (or older than the statute of limitations, if that is longer).^14,16

Your full background check rights

Before you apply

• You can ask a background screening company for the information it has on you, and the CFPB keeps a list of consumer reporting companies, including employment screening companies, with their contact details.^10,13,17
• According to the Clean Slate Initiative, 14 states and Washington, D.C. have passed Clean Slate laws that meet its criteria for automatically clearing eligible records: Pennsylvania, Utah, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Delaware, Virginia, California, Oklahoma, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Illinois, and Missouri, plus D.C.¹⁸
• The Federal Bonding Program, run by the U.S. Department of Labor, lets states give employers free fidelity bonds that protect them against losses from a newly hired worker's dishonest acts, for job seekers with past justice involvement or in recovery from substance use.^19,20

See whether you can clear your record in your state