Company recruits truckers with criminal record, saving them from public condemnation

A Cleveland-based trucking company wants to provide a “second chance” for truck drivers with previous criminal records.

The trucking logistics company in Cleveland Freewheeling was founded in 2020 by friends Demetrius Holmes and Charles Brown. Their main goal was to help with the employment of truckers who may have problems with this.

“If you have something on your record, the first thing a person is going to do is judge you,” Holmes said. “What we try to do here, we try to look past that.”

Of the company’s 30 current employees, 10 have criminal records, but these drivers play critical role in hauling goods such as clothing and different clothes across the country and the state.

“I can’t judge them based on their past,” Holmes said. “They’re good people. They’re good workers.”

Although hiring convicted criminals can be problematic, Holmes and Brown say the company’s ability to change truckers’ lives is makes it all worth it. They even plan to hire new dispatchers soon to provide the position to those who need it the most.