Driver write-up form: a written warning that records the facts, the rule, and the next step

How to fill in a write-up

Write it from the trip record, not from memory, and deliver it the day you decide. The form is one page, and every line asks for something you can point to. Which step of discipline this is comes from your own policy in the driver handbook, and the steps themselves, with a completed example, are in the guide to disciplining NEMT drivers.

1. Pull the records first. Get the trip times, the dispatch messages, and the vehicle inspection for the event.
2. Find the rule. Cite the handbook section the driver signed for, and the date of that signature.
3. Check the file. List every earlier step on the same issue, with dates.
4. Hear the driver before you write the plan. Record the driver’s account in the driver’s words, in Part D.
5. Meet, hand over a copy, and file the original. The driver signs for receipt. Both of you keep a copy.

The form

Part A: Who and when

Part B: What happened

Use the trip number for the rider. Each A to B ride has its own number and its own record.

Part C: The rule and the record

Part D: The driver’s account

Part E: What happens now

Part F: Broker or payer involved (if any)

Part G: Delivery and signatures

My signature means I received this form. It does not mean I agree with it. I may attach my own statement.

Can the driver see the write-up and answer it?

In several states the driver can do both. Three examples:

• California. Labor Code 432 requires an employer to give an employee or applicant a copy of any document the person signed relating to obtaining or holding employment, if requested. Labor Code 1198.5 lets current and former employees inspect and receive a copy of the personnel records the employer keeps relating to their performance or any grievance, within 30 calendar days of a written request. A signed write-up falls under both.
• Illinois. The Personnel Record Review Act covers employers with 5 or more employees. On written request, an employee may inspect and copy documents used to decide on discharge or other disciplinary action, at least twice a year, and a former employee counts for a year after leaving. If the employee disagrees with a record and no correction is agreed, a written statement is attached and goes out with the record to any third party.
• Massachusetts. Under chapter 149, section 52C, you must notify an employee within 10 days of placing information in the personnel record that is or may be used to hurt the employee’s chances for promotion, transfer, or pay, or to support discipline. The employee may review the record within 5 business days of a written request, and may attach a written statement to anything disputed.

Part G records the date the form went into the file next to the date you delivered it, which is your proof of the Massachusetts deadline. Where your state has no such law, give the copy and the chance to respond anyway. It costs nothing and removes any argument that the driver never saw the form.

What to keep off the form

• The rider’s name or condition. Refer to the trip number. The driver may ask to see the file, and an agency or a hearing officer may ask for it.
• A line against discussing it with coworkers. The NLRB says talking with coworkers about working conditions is protected activity, and an employer may not discipline or threaten an employee for it.
• Guesses about motive. “Did not care” cannot be checked. “Picked up at 8:41 for a window that closed at 8:30, per the trip record” can.
• Anything the driver has not been shown. If a fact is in the file, it belongs on the page the driver signs.

The meeting: the investigation comes first

The right to a representative attaches to the fact-finding, not the handoff. The NLRB says that, under current Board law, only union-represented employees have the right to ask for a representative at an interview they reasonably believe could lead to discipline. The Board lists a meeting to tell an employee about a disciplinary decision already made among the meetings that are not investigatory.

For a union driver, that means the representative sits in on the questioning that produces Part D. Delivering the finished form is a shorter meeting, with the signature and the copy.

When a broker complaint or point started it

Part F exists because the broker keeps its own clock. MTM Health’s Virginia handbook scores providers on a point system, assesses points after a field audit, a complaint, or state monitoring, and keeps each point for one year from the date it was assessed. A substantiated complaint about securement is one of the listed 2-point infractions.

Record the complaint number, the points, and the date, so your warning and the broker’s record line up. Your internal step and the broker’s action are separate: the broker can suspend a driver’s access to its trips while you are still deciding what to do with the employment. The guide to disciplining drivers covers what to do when a broker removes a driver.

Filing it and letting it go

Keep the signed original in the driver’s file, and keep a copy of the attached statement with it. Under 29 CFR 1602.14, an employer keeps personnel records for one year from the date of the record or the action, whichever is later, and a termination keeps the file for one year from the termination. A discrimination charge extends the period for the records relevant to it. The employee record retention guide gives the full schedule.

Illinois has two rules for sharing a warning with anyone outside your company, other than a union that represents the employee. Section 40/7 requires written notice to the employee, mailed first class on or before the day you share it, with exceptions for a waiver signed on a job application, a court or arbitration order, and a government agency request after an employee complaint or a criminal investigation. Section 40/8 requires you to review the file before any release and delete disciplinary reports more than four years old, with exceptions that include legal proceedings. If the warning ends in a termination, the steps after it are in how to fire a NEMT driver.

Quoting the trip record in HealthRide

Part B asks for times, and HealthRide keeps them. Each trip saves its timestamps, signatures, and GPS-recorded miles, and the reports page exports a trip log as a CSV or PDF, so the form can quote the record. The license and training dates on each driver’s profile in fleet and credentials show whether an expired credential belongs in the same file.