FMCSA · Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP)

What FMCSA knows about a driver's safety history.

A PSP record is FMCSA's official file on a single commercial driver — five years of crashes and three years of roadside inspections, drawn from the same national database that feeds carrier safety scores. This guide explains what's in a record, how to read it fairly, and how to fix it — with no judgment about any individual driver.

Crash activity · 5 years

Crashes4

With injuries / fatalities3 / 1

Reviewed — Not Preventable1

Inspection activity · 3 years

Driver inspections4

Driver out-of-service rate50%

Vehicle out-of-service rate25%

Illustrative figures from FMCSA's sample record.

Read this first

A PSP record shows what happened, not who was at fault. A crash on the record doesn't mean the driver caused it, and a violation listed may belong to a co-driver and not count toward them. It can only be pulled with the driver's written consent, and it's one input to a hiring decision — never a verdict on the driver.

5-year crash history3-year inspection historyFrom MCMIS, updated monthlyRequires written consent

What PSP is

The Pre-Employment Screening Program lets carriers and drivers see a driver's federal safety history — voluntarily, and only with consent.

The program

PSP is voluntary for carriers — they choose whether to use it — but the driver data itself isn't opt-in: Congress mandated its inclusion under SAFETEA-LU (49 U.S.C. § 31150). It gives carriers, drivers, and screening providers electronic access to a commercial driver's safety record, officially the Driver Information Resource (DIR); PSP is how it's delivered. In FMCSA's study, carriers that use it averaged about 8% fewer crashes and 17.2% fewer driver out-of-service events.

Who can pull a record

Carriers

Only to screen a job applicant, and only with the applicant's written consent. You can't pull a record on a current employee, and you must keep the signed consent on file for five years.

Drivers

Anyone can pull their own record at any time — and subscribe to a monitoring service to be notified when it changes. Reviewing your own first is the best way to catch errors before an employer sees them.

PSP vs an MVR

They're different lenses. A Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) lists traffic convictions from a state. A PSP record adds federal roadside inspection results — including inspections that found no citation — and DOT-reportable crashes. Most carriers use both.

What's in a record

Three parts: who the driver is, their crashes over five years, and their roadside inspections over three years — each with a summary and the line-by-line detail.

Driver information

The driver's name and every CDL/license and state on file. One driver can appear under more than one license number or state, and the record ties activity to each.

Crash activity — 5 years

A summary count (total crashes, plus how many involved fatalities, injuries, tow-aways, hazmat releases, and how many were reviewed Not Preventable), then each crash in detail: date, the carrier and DOT number the driver was running under, the reporting state and report number, location, and the number of fatalities and injuries. Crashes are listed by involvement, without any determination of responsibility.

Inspection activity — 3 years

A summary of driver, vehicle, and hazmat inspections — including how many resulted in an out-of-service order and the resulting OOS rates — then each inspection in detail: date, carrier, reporting state and report number, inspection level, and every violation found, with its code, whether it was out-of-service, and whether it's attributable to this driver or a co-driver.

Violation	Out-of-service?	Notes you may see
393.47(e)	Non-OOS	Brake out of adjustment
395.3(a)(3)(i)	OOS	Driving beyond the 11-hour rule
392.5(a)(2)	OOS	State citation result: convicted of a different charge

Annotated sample · illustrative data

How a record actually reads

A simplified version of FMCSA's own sample report, with the things worth noticing called out.

PSP Detailed Report · DOE, JOHN · VA 111111111 / NY 222222222MCMIS snapshot · monthly

Crash activity — 5 years

4Crashes

1Fatalities

3Injuries

1Not preventable

Involvement, not fault. All four count as the driver's involvement — none of it implies they caused the crash.

"Reviewed — Not Preventable." FMCSA reviewed one crash and excluded it, the same carve-out used in carrier scores.

Inspection activity — 3 years

4Driver insp.

50%Driver OOS rate

4Vehicle insp.

25%Vehicle OOS rate

395.3(a)(3)(i)Driving beyond the 11-hour ruleOOS

393.42(a)Inadequate brake system — logged on a co-driverDoesn't apply to this driver

392.5(a)(2)Driving under the influence — court result attachedConvicted of different charge

Not every line is theirs. A co-driver's violation appears but is excluded from this driver's summary counts.

Court result matters. A state-citation outcome can change how a violation counts — challenge those through DataQs.

OOS placed out of servicegrey doesn't apply to this drivernp court / preventability note

Reading it fairly

A record is raw history, not a grade. A few things keep it from being misread.

Crashes show involvement, not fault

FMCSA states crashes "without any determination as to responsibility." A clean driver can carry crashes they didn't cause.

"Reviewed — Not Preventable"

If FMCSA reviewed a crash and found it not preventable, it's flagged and excluded — the same CPDP carve-out used in carrier scores.

Not every violation is the driver's

Co-driver violations appear on the report but don't count in the driver's summary. Read the "does not apply" notes.

Out-of-service vs not

OOS means serious enough to stop the driver or vehicle. Each violation is flagged, and OOS rates are shown by type.

Court results can change a violation

A dismissed or downgraded citation ("convicted of a different charge") is noted and affects how it counts. Court and roadside are separate records.

It's a record, not a score

Unlike a carrier's SMS percentile, a PSP record isn't graded or ranked — it's the underlying history, refreshed on a monthly MCMIS snapshot, so new events or corrections appear next cycle, not instantly.

What it doesn't show

No fault determination, no opinion, and no list of state traffic convictions — that's the MVR. PSP is roadside inspections and DOT-reportable crashes, nothing more.

Fixing errors & consent

Wrong data can be challenged, and access is governed by law.

Correcting a record — DataQs

If something's wrong — the wrong driver, a duplicate, a citation dismissed in court, or a crash that should be Not Preventable — file a Request for Data Review through FMCSA's DataQs system; it routes to the agency that reported the data. A driver should pull their own record and fix errors before an employer sees it. Starting around September 2026, an upgraded process takes effect — binding state deadlines and a three-step independent review — to make corrections faster and fairer; until then, the existing review process applies.

Consent & fair use

Consent is required by law

A carrier must have the applicant's written consent before pulling a record, must keep it for five years, and may use PSP only for pre-employment screening — not on current employees.

Drivers stay in control

Drivers can pull and monitor their own record any time. Use of the data is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which gives applicants rights around how it's used in hiring.

If a record affects a hiring decision

Because PSP is used for hiring, the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies: if a carrier declines a driver based on the report, FCRA requires a pre-adverse-action notice (with a copy of the report) and then a final adverse-action notice — giving the driver a chance to dispute any errors first.

Reference

Key terms and notes on this guide.

Glossary

PSP: Pre-Employment Screening Program — FMCSA's voluntary program for accessing a driver's safety record.
DIR: Driver Information Resource — the underlying record PSP delivers.
MCMIS: FMCSA's national database; PSP records are drawn from a monthly snapshot of it.
Reportable crash: A DOT-reportable crash: a fatality, an injury treated away from the scene, or a tow-away. Listed regardless of fault.
Not Preventable: A crash FMCSA reviewed (CPDP) and determined the driver could not have prevented — flagged and excluded from counts.
Out-of-service (OOS): A violation serious enough to bar the driver or vehicle from operating until fixed.
OOS rate: Inspections with an out-of-service result divided by all inspections of that type (driver, vehicle, or hazmat).
Inspection level: The type/depth of a roadside inspection (I–VI), shown for each inspection.
MVR: Motor Vehicle Record — a state's list of traffic convictions; separate from PSP.
DataQs: FMCSA's system for requesting correction of inaccurate crash, inspection, or violation data.
Written consent: The applicant's signed authorization, required before a carrier may pull a record and kept for five years.

Related guides

About this guide

Current as of June 2026. A bill to expand PSP access and modernize record corrections (the Motor Carrier Safety Screening Modernization Act, H.R. 7261) was introduced in early 2026 and remains in committee; nothing here assumes it has become law. An upgraded DataQs correction process takes effect around September 2026.

This guide is educational. It explains how the Pre-Employment Screening Program works and does not modify any regulation, and it is not legal advice. PSP records describe a driver's inspection and crash history for screening purposes; they are not a determination that any driver is safe, unsafe, or at fault. Use of PSP data is subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act and FMCSA's consent requirements.