49 CFR §391.23 vs §391.25: Pre-Hire MVR vs Annual Review

Two FMCSA regulations govern when a motor carrier is required to pull a Motor Vehicle Record on a commercial driver: 49 CFR §391.23, which sets the pre-employment investigation requirements, and 49 CFR §391.25, which sets the annual review requirement. They sound similar and they appear back-to-back in the regulations, but they cover different points in the driver's tenure with the carrier — and they are scored as independent violations on an FMCSA compliance review. A carrier can comply with one and miss the other, and rack up a penalty either way.

This guide breaks down both regulations side by side: what each requires, when the requirement is triggered, what the carrier has to put in the DQ file, and the most common audit findings under each.

§391.23 — Investigation and Inquiries (Pre-Employment)

§391.23 governs everything that happens before a driver is placed on a commercial motor vehicle for the first time at your carrier. The regulation breaks the requirement into three tracks.

MVR for the prior three years

49 CFR §391.23(a)(1) — Within 30 days of the date the driver's employment begins, the motor carrier shall make an inquiry to obtain the motor vehicle record of the driver from the appropriate agency of every State in which the driver held a commercial motor vehicle operator's license or permit during the preceding 3 years.

A few practical points:

• The thirty-day clock runs from the day the driver starts work — not from the day the offer letter goes out.
• The inquiry covers every state where the driver held a license, not just the current issuing state. This is the most commonly missed step. A driver who moved from Texas to Oklahoma eighteen months ago needs MVRs from both states for the pre-employment file.
• You file the actual returned record, dated and signed by the reviewer.

Three-year employment history

49 CFR §391.23(a)(2) — Within 30 days of the date the driver's employment begins, the motor carrier shall make an investigation of the driver's employment record during the preceding 3 years.

The §391.23(d) detail expands what the prior-employer investigation must cover: dates of employment, an inquiry into safety performance under DOT regulations, and (if the prior employer is DOT-regulated) the §40.25 drug-and-alcohol testing record.

CDL pre-employment requirement (CDLIS)

49 CFR §391.23(a)(1) — For a driver who holds a CDL, the inquiry must include a check of the Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS).

CDLIS — the AAMVA-operated system that tracks every CDL ever issued — is the only way to surface a CDL the driver may have held in a state they did not list on the application. A driver who held a CDL in Pennsylvania five years ago, lost it for a serious offense, then moved to Florida and obtained a new license could complete a Florida MVR with a clean record. The CDLIS check catches the Pennsylvania history.

What goes in the DQ file under §391.23

The pre-employment package, ready for the §391.51 file:

• An MVR from every state where the driver held a license in the prior three years
• A CDLIS check (CDL drivers only)
• Documented investigation of the prior three years of employment
• Drug-and-alcohol testing records from prior DOT-regulated employers
• The signed driver's release authorizing all of the above

§391.25 — Annual Inquiry and Review

§391.25 picks up where §391.23 leaves off. Once the driver is on board, the carrier owes the driver — and the federal government — a yearly check on whether the driver is still qualified. The regulation has two distinct steps.

Step 1: Annual MVR inquiry

49 CFR §391.25(a) — Except as provided in subpart G of this part, each motor carrier shall, at least once every 12 months, make an inquiry to obtain the motor vehicle record of each driver it employs, covering at least the preceding 12 months, to the appropriate agency of every State in which the driver held a commercial motor vehicle operator's license or permit during the time period.

Practical points:

• The clock is twelve months from the prior MVR — most carriers run all annual MVRs on a fixed calendar month for operational simplicity, which keeps you well inside the requirement.
• "Every State in which the driver held a license" still applies. If a driver moved mid-year, the annual review must capture both states.

Step 2: Annual review of driving record

49 CFR §391.25(b) — Except as provided in subpart G, each motor carrier shall, at least once every 12 months, review the motor vehicle record of each driver it employs to determine whether that driver meets minimum requirements for safe driving or is disqualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle.

49 CFR §391.25(c) — The motor carrier shall consider any evidence that the driver has violated any applicable Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and any evidence that the driver has violated any applicable State or local laws or regulations relating to traffic accidents.

The review is a documented, written determination — not just a glance at the new MVR. The §391.25(d) requirement is explicit: the carrier files a note of the review's findings, signed and dated, in the DQ file.

What goes in the DQ file under §391.25

• A new MVR from every relevant state, dated within the prior twelve months
• The driver's annual §391.27 list of violations
• A signed annual review by the carrier, with a determination of qualification

The most common audit findings under both

Patterns that show up year after year in compliance reviews:

• Pre-employment MVR pulled only from the current issuing state, not from every prior state
• CDLIS check missing or older than the §391.23 thirty-day window
• Annual review more than twelve months stale because the prior reviewer left and no one took over the calendar
• Annual review documented but the underlying MVR was never refreshed
• §391.27 violation self-certification missing because the carrier collected it once and never re-collected it

Each one is a separate, scoreable violation on the audit report. None of them require complicated systems to avoid — only a documented calendar and a single source for both the pre-employment package and the yearly inquiry.

How they pair together in practice

A clean compliance posture treats §391.23 and §391.25 as the bookends of a driver's tenure. The §391.23 package is heavy: prior-three-years MVRs, prior-employer investigations, a CDLIS check, and a road-test certificate or equivalent. The §391.25 package is lean and recurring: a fresh MVR, the driver's certification, and the carrier's signed review. If you build the DQ file once with the §391.23 documents in their proper §391.51 order, then add a §391.25 package every year on a fixed calendar date, you have a file that audits cleanly even when the auditor pulls a driver who left the company eighteen months ago.

A timeline view of a typical first year

Imagine a driver whose first day on the road is March 1. Here is what the §391.23 / §391.25 calendar looks like for the first eighteen months of their employment:

• February — Application for employment received. Driver signs the DPPA + FCRA consent. Pre-employment MVR pulled from every state of license in the prior three years. CDLIS query run for CDL drivers.
• March 1 — First day on the road. The §391.23 thirty-day clock starts ticking; everything must be on file by March 30.
• March 5 — Three-year employment investigation responses logged. §40.25 drug-and-alcohol records from prior DOT-regulated employers received.
• March 10 — Road test certificate added (or §391.33 equivalent accepted). Medical examiner's certificate filed; National Registry verification under §391.23(m) printed.
• December 31 — Driver signs the §391.27 annual list of violations.
• February 28 (year two) — Annual MVR pulled from every state of current licensure. Annual review under §391.25(b) signed and added to the file.

Carriers with more than a handful of drivers typically run the entire annual cohort on a single calendar month to avoid tracking individual anniversary dates. The §391.25 rule is "at least once every 12 months," so a fixed-month schedule satisfies the regulation as long as no driver's review slips past the twelve-month mark.

Where audit findings come from

The §391.23 / §391.25 audit trail is one of the easiest places to find violations during a New Entrant Safety Audit because it is entirely paper-based — the dates either match or they do not. The most common findings:

• The pre-employment MVR is dated after the driver's first day on the road
• The CDLIS check is missing for a CDL driver
• The annual review for a long-tenured driver is more than twelve months stale
• The annual review exists but the underlying MVR was never refreshed
• The prior-employer investigation was never documented

A clean file makes the rest of the audit move faster. An incomplete one slows everything else because the auditor has now flagged the carrier as someone whose paperwork can't be trusted.

Pull both the pre-employment package and the annual MVR through FastDriverScreening. Same-day delivery — $40 MVR Basic, $60 MVR + CDLIS, $100 DOT Pre-Employment (adds PSP and the Clearinghouse pre-employment query), and $60 Annual Refresh (MVR + Clearinghouse limited query for §382.701(b)) — with the issuing-state header that auditors expect to see.