PSP Report Cost and How to Get One - for Carriers and for Drivers

The PSP report is the one pre-hire document that generates the same three questions from every direction: what does it cost, how do I get one, and how do I get mine. Carriers ask because PSP is voluntary and they want to know what they are buying; drivers ask because a previous employer's report is following them into interviews. This guide answers the access, cost, and retention questions. It does not walk the report itself line by line - that is covered in how to read a PSP report, and the comparison against the MVR and CDLIS is in PSP vs MVR vs CDLIS.

Every figure below was checked against the program's own enrollment terms and fee tables at psp.fmcsa.dot.gov in August 2026; fees can change, so treat them as current rather than permanent.

What a PSP report costs

The record fee is flat: $10 per PSP record, for a carrier and for a driver alike. The program charges the fee "whether or not crash or inspection information is available for the driver," so a clean record that comes back with nothing on it costs the same $10 as one with a page of inspections.

Carriers pay a second charge that drivers do not: an annual account subscription. The rate depends on fleet size as verified against your FMCSA registration.

The volume tiers for large fleets are $10.00 per record for 1-10 records, $9.50 for 11-20, $9.25 for 21-40, $9.00 for 41-100, and $8.75 for more than 100 - and they apply to simultaneous requests, not to your running total for the year. Record fees are invoiced monthly by email and the annual fee once a year, payable by ACH debit, credit card (with a surcharge), or paper check; nothing is billed until the account is approved.

If you order PSP through a screening service instead of holding your own account, you pay the service's price and skip the subscription entirely. At FastDriverScreening the PSP record is bundled rather than sold alone: it is inside the $80 DOT Hire-Ready package (MVR + CDLIS + PSP) and the $100 DOT Pre-Employment package (adds the Clearinghouse pre-employment query). For a fleet that hires a few drivers a year, that is usually cheaper than carrying an account, and it removes the enrollment paperwork described next.

How a carrier enrolls and orders

Enrollment starts on the PSP site and runs through NIC Federal, the contractor FMCSA designates as the exclusive agent for online access to PSP records. The steps, in order:

• Answer the intake questions - whether you have enrolled before, and whether you are a motor carrier or an industry service provider (a background screening company enrolls under a separate agreement).
• Download and read the Monthly Account Holder Agreement. The site itself suggests having counsel review it, because signing binds your company to the FCRA and disclosure obligations described in the next section.
• Provide your DOT number, power-unit count, a primary contact, billing contact, payment method, and up to 10 named users - all of whom must be direct employees of the enrolling company.
• Submit. The account is activated when the agreement is approved; the program says you are not billed during enrollment, and the printed agreement asks you to allow up to ten business days for processing.
• Each named user then creates a PSP Login.gov account with multi-factor authentication. That Login.gov credential is the "PSP login" - there is no separate PSP password.

New accounts start in a probation period. Until it clears, you must upload a legible copy of the driver's signed disclosure and authorization form for every record you request, and the record is released only after the PSP team reviews the form.

Ordering a record once you are live takes a minute: enter the driver's license number and issuing state (for the full history, every CDL the driver has held in the last five years), certify under penalty of perjury that you disclosed the request to the driver and hold their authorization, and pay the fee. The record returns immediately as a PDF. It stays viewable in your account for five days (120 hours), so download it and place it in the DQ file the same day - after that it appears in your history only, and re-accessing it means paying again.

PSP Monthly Account Holder Agreement §5(e) - the account holder agrees to maintain the safety performance information and all PSP or FCRA related employment transaction records, including the disclosure and authorization form, for three years from the date a hiring decision was made.

The consent form is PSP-specific

The most common enrollment mistake is assuming your existing background-check release covers PSP. It does not. FMCSA requires its own document, titled "Important Disclosure Regarding Background Reports from the PSP Online Service," and the program's rules on it are unusually strict:

• The language must be used in whole, exactly as provided.
• It must be a stand-alone document. It may not appear on the same page as any other form or be combined with other consent language.
• It must show the driver's name, the driver's signature (handwritten or electronic), the FMCSA-required language, and a date on or before the date of the record request.
• You must keep the signed form for three years from the hiring decision and produce it on demand.

Account holders are audited monthly. An audit selects specific transactions and asks for the matching forms; a form that fails - missing signature, wrong date, merged into another document - brings warnings and, on repeat, suspension or termination from the service. The agreement's own words: failing to keep the signed form "may result in a conclusion that your company did not provide the mandated disclosure or obtain the Applicant's signed authorization" - which is a federal-records problem, not a paperwork one.

Because a PSP record used in hiring is a consumer report, the FCRA sits on top of the FMCSA form. If the report contributes to a no-hire decision, the applicant gets a pre-adverse-action notice with a copy of the report and the Summary of Rights, then an adverse-action notice - or, for a driver who applied by mail, phone, or online and never met you in person, an oral, written, or electronic notice within three business days of the decision. Either way the driver may request a free copy of the record from you, and you have three business days to send it. The mechanics are in how to handle a failed pre-employment screening.

How a driver gets a copy of their own PSP report

A driver does not need an account subscription, an employer, or a screening company. From the driver page at psp.fmcsa.dot.gov:

• Create a driver account and then a PSP Login.gov account (the site prompts you through both).
• Answer the identity-verification questions the system asks before it will release a record.
• Enter the license number and issuing state for your current CDL and any CDL you held in the last five years - the $10 fee covers all of them in one search.
• Pay $10 by credit card. The record is delivered immediately as a PDF and stays viewable on your dashboard for five days (120 hours). Save it.

Two free routes exist. First, the program states that the same information "can be obtained for free by filing a Privacy Act request from the U.S. Department of Transportation" - slower, but no fee. Second, if a prospective employer used your PSP record in a decision not to hire you, its certification to FMCSA obligates it to give you a free copy within three business days of your request with proper identification.

Once you have an account, subscribe to PSP Monitoring. It is free, for drivers only, and sends an email (and optionally a text) whenever your record changes: a new crash or inspection appears, an old one drops off, or an existing entry is updated. For a driver who has just filed a DataQs challenge, it is the fastest way to know the correction landed.

What the record contains - and what it does not

Every PSP record is the same shape regardless of who orders it: five years of FMCSA-reportable crash involvement and three years of roadside inspections, pulled from the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS), showing the carrier the driver was operating for at the time of each event. It carries no score, no license status, no convictions or points, and no drug or alcohol results - those live on the MVR and in the Clearinghouse. Crashes appear regardless of fault, for drivers and co-drivers alike, and inspections appear whether or not they produced a violation. If you need the full three-way comparison, use PSP vs MVR vs CDLIS.

How long violations stay on a PSP report

Two windows, both measured from the latest MCMIS data snapshot rather than from today's date: crashes for five years, roadside inspections (and any violations recorded on them) for three years. PSP is refreshed from MCMIS in periodic snapshots - roughly monthly - and the current snapshot date is posted on the PSP site, which is why an inspection from last week is usually not on the report yet and why an event will "age off" a few weeks after its anniversary rather than on the day.

Nothing comes off early on its own. A ticket that a court later dismissed stays on the record as an inspection violation until someone files the court result through DataQs. Under FMCSA's adjudicated-citations policy, which applies to inspections on or after August 23, 2014, a documented dismissal or not-guilty finding removes the violation from PSP, a conviction on a lesser charge updates the record to the reduced charge, and a conviction on the original charge leaves it as is. Crash records can likewise be updated through DataQs review. State DMVs cannot change a PSP record and neither can the PSP contractor - only FMCSA and the states, through DataQs.

Where PSP fits in the pre-hire order

PSP is voluntary - no FMCSA rule requires it and it does not replace any step in the DOT pre-employment screening checklist. Carriers run it because FMCSA's own program data ties PSP screening to an 8% lower crash rate and a 17% lower driver out-of-service rate on average. If you would rather not hold an account, the $80 DOT Hire-Ready and $100 DOT Pre-Employment packages include the PSP record with the FMCSA disclosure and authorization built into the consent step at checkout, delivered as the same PDF the federal portal produces.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a PSP report cost?

A PSP record costs $10 per pull through the federal Pre-Employment Screening Program, for carriers and drivers alike, and the fee applies even when the record shows no crashes or inspections. Carriers also pay an annual account fee - $25 for fleets with 99 or fewer power units, $100 for fleets with 100 or more and for screening companies - covering up to 10 users.

Is a PSP report free for drivers?

Ordering online costs a driver $10 per record. The same information can be obtained free by filing a Privacy Act request with the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is slower, and a driver who was turned down for a job because of a PSP record can request a free copy from that employer within three business days. PSP Monitoring alerts are free for drivers.

How do I get a copy of my PSP report?

Go to the driver section of psp.fmcsa.dot.gov, create a driver account and a PSP Login.gov account, answer the identity-verification questions, enter the license number and state for your current CDL and any CDL held in the last five years, and pay $10 by credit card. The PDF is delivered immediately and stays viewable on your dashboard for five days, so download and save it.

How long do violations stay on a PSP report?

Roadside inspections and the violations recorded on them stay for three years; crashes stay for five years. Both windows run from the date of the latest MCMIS data snapshot loaded into PSP, which is refreshed roughly monthly. A dismissed citation does not drop off early unless the court result is filed through DataQs, which removes dismissed or not-guilty violations and updates reduced ones for inspections on or after August 23, 2014.

Do I need my own PSP account to hire drivers?

No. PSP is voluntary, and a carrier can order records through an enrolled screening provider instead of holding an account. A provider's account carries the annual subscription and the FMCSA disclosure and authorization obligations, and you pay the provider's price per report. Carriers that pull PSP records often, or want direct access, enroll themselves for $25 or $100 a year plus $10 per record.

Can I use my regular background check consent form for PSP?

No. FMCSA requires its own disclosure and authorization document, used word for word as a stand-alone form, signed and dated by the driver on or before the date of the request. It may not be combined with any other consent language, and PSP account holders are audited monthly for the forms behind their requests, with suspension or termination as the penalty for missing or non-conforming ones.