What is the FMCSA PSP (Pre-Employment Screening Program)?
PSP is FMCSA's driver-history report covering five years of roadside inspections and three years of crash data on any driver of a commercial motor vehicle. It is sold to motor carriers as a pre-employment screening report and is sourced from the federal MCMIS database.
PSP was launched under SAFETEA-LU in 2010 and is operated by FMCSA via NIC Federal. The report shows every roadside inspection on the driver during the prior 5 years (including violations cited but not the underlying conviction), plus every reportable DOT crash on the driver during the prior 3 years.
Unlike an MVR, PSP is driver-centric across employers. If a driver had inspections under two carriers in the prior three years, both sets of inspection events show on the same PSP report. That makes PSP the single best source for "driving record" data across job changes.
For pre-employment, PSP fills the gap between the MVR (which only shows convictions on file at the state DMV) and the actual on-road behavior. A driver with a clean MVR can still have a long PSP showing repeat HOS or pre-trip violations — both are valid §391.23(d) data points.
PSP requires written driver consent before pulling. The consent language is bundled with the FCRA + DPPA disclosure on the FastDriverScreening intake form, so a single signed consent covers MVR, CDLIS, PSP, and the Clearinghouse pre-employment query in one packet.