What screening packages do you offer?

Five packages spanning the full DOT pre-hire stack. (1) MVR Basic — $40, single Motor Vehicle Record, best for non-CDL drivers and §391.25 annual reviews. (2) MVR + CDLIS — $60, adds the AAMVA cross-state CDL check required at every CDL hire under §391.23. (3) DOT Hire-Ready — $80, adds FMCSA PSP (5-yr crash + 3-yr inspection history) for candidate vetting before formal hire. (4) DOT Pre-Employment — $100, the full pre-hire stack: MVR + CDLIS + PSP + FMCSA Clearinghouse pre-employment query (mandatory under §382.701(a) before a CDL driver's first dispatch). (5) Annual Refresh — $60, MVR + Clearinghouse limited annual query for §382.701(b) recurring compliance.

How much does a single MVR cost?

A single MVR is $40 flat (MVR Basic package). No per-state surcharges, no sign-up fees, no monthly minimums. Same-day digital delivery from the issuing-state DMV.

Which package do I need before hiring a CDL driver?

DOT Pre-Employment ($100). FMCSA requires four reports before a CDL driver's first dispatch — MVR (§391.23), CDLIS (§391.23(a)(1)), PSP, and a Clearinghouse pre-employment query (§382.701(a)) — and DOT Pre-Employment bundles all four. Buying anything cheaper means you still need the missing pieces before the driver can legally operate.

What is the difference between DOT Hire-Ready and DOT Pre-Employment?

DOT Hire-Ready ($80) gives you MVR + CDLIS + PSP — three reports you can pull without driver Clearinghouse consent. It's the candidate-vetting step. DOT Pre-Employment ($100) adds the FMCSA Clearinghouse pre-employment query, which requires the driver to e-sign a consent through the FMCSA Clearinghouse portal. The Clearinghouse query is the report you legally need before a CDL driver's first dispatch.

How does Annual Refresh work?

Annual Refresh ($60) bundles a yearly MVR (for §391.25 driver record review) with a Clearinghouse limited annual query (for §382.701(b) recurring compliance). Run it on every CDL driver every 12 months and your annual driver-side compliance is done in one click. It's a one-time charge, not a subscription — buy it again next year when the driver's anniversary rolls around.

How quickly will I get the report?

MVR, CDLIS, and PSP come back in minutes. The FMCSA Clearinghouse query lands within 1 business day after the driver e-signs consent in the Clearinghouse portal — that's the FMCSA system's response time, not ours. We email each report the moment it's delivered.

What information is on an MVR?

A Motor Vehicle Record lists the driver's license status, class and endorsements, expiration, restrictions, accidents, citations, suspensions, withdrawals, and any actions taken against the license over the FMCSA-required look-back period. It is the document you keep in the DQ File for §391.25 annual reviews.

What does the FMCSA Clearinghouse query show?

The pre-employment Clearinghouse query (limited consent) returns whether the driver has any unresolved drug or alcohol program violations on file in the FMCSA Clearinghouse — the federal database every CDL employer must check before hiring. The driver e-signs consent in their FMCSA Clearinghouse account and the query lands within 1 business day. Annual Refresh uses the same limited-consent query for the §382.701(b) recurring check.

What is PSP and why include it?

PSP — the FMCSA Pre-Employment Screening Program — is a federally-maintained database of every commercial driver's 5-year crash history and 3-year roadside-inspection history. It catches patterns (repeated HOS violations, brake-system failures, OOS orders) that a clean MVR would never surface. Both DOT Hire-Ready and DOT Pre-Employment include it.

Do I need the driver's consent before pulling these reports?

Yes — different consents for different reports. MVR + CDLIS need a written DPPA + FCRA driver authorization (our checkout collects this). PSP needs a written FMCSA-form consent (also collected at checkout). The FMCSA Clearinghouse query uses a digital handshake — the driver creates a Clearinghouse account at clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov and approves your query in their portal. Packages that include any Clearinghouse component require this digital consent before we run the report.

What if the driver's license is from a state your service does not cover?

We cover all 50 states + D.C. Some states (e.g., Pennsylvania, Washington) require an extra step the system handles automatically. You see one package price — no per-state surcharges — regardless of issuing state.

What is the Driver Qualification (DQ) File?

A DQ File is the federally-required folder of documents every motor carrier must keep on each commercial driver they employ. It includes the application, MVRs, road test, medical card, drug-test records, and supervisor reviews. 49 CFR §391.51 spells out the contents.

What does the $25 DQ File template add-on include?

The same DQ File our compliance team uses internally to onboard drivers, packaged as a fillable PDF + editable Word doc. Includes the application for employment, road-test certificate, MVR review form, drug & alcohol consent, prior-employer verification, annual review checklist, and the driver certification of violations. Fill in the gaps for each driver and you have an audit-ready §391.51 file in minutes — without rebuilding the form from scratch every time.

Is the DQ File template a one-time purchase or per-driver?

One-time. You buy it once, save it, and reuse the template for every driver you onboard. We email a fillable PDF and an editable Word doc the moment your order completes.

Who needs to pull MVRs and run CDLIS checks?

Every motor carrier that employs commercial drivers - both CDL and most non-CDL commercial drivers. FMCSA requires an MVR before hiring (49 CFR §391.23) and an annual review (49 CFR §391.25). CDLIS is required for CDL holders under §391.23(a)(1).

Are the reports admissible for FMCSA audits?

Yes. We pull from the same state DMV, AAMVA CDLIS, FMCSA PSP, and FMCSA Clearinghouse sources used by enterprise screening services. The PDFs we deliver carry the issuing-source header and timestamp FMCSA auditors expect to see in the DQ File.

Can I run an MVR on a driver who is not yet hired?

Yes - that is the most common use case. A pre-hire MVR is required by §391.23 before the first day of operation. As long as you have the driver's signed consent, you can run the report.

What is the §382.701(a) Clearinghouse pre-employment query rule?

Since January 6, 2020, FMCSA requires every motor carrier to run a Clearinghouse pre-employment query on each CDL driver before that driver's first dispatch (49 CFR §382.701(a)). The query checks the federal Clearinghouse database for any unresolved drug or alcohol program violations on the driver's record. Operating a CDL driver without the query on file is a documented violation — the DOT Pre-Employment package handles it.

What is the §382.701(b) annual Clearinghouse query?

In addition to the pre-employment query, FMCSA requires every motor carrier to run a limited-consent Clearinghouse query on each CDL driver every 12 months (49 CFR §382.701(b)). The Annual Refresh package bundles this with the §391.25 annual MVR review so a year's worth of recurring driver compliance happens in one click.

Compliance9 min read

PSP vs MVR vs CDLIS: A Three-Way Comparison of What Each Report Actually Shows

Last updated: May 2, 2026

By the FastDriverScreening compliance teamPublished May 2, 2026

Run an MVR — from $40

Same-day digital delivery. Five packages from $40 (MVR Basic) through $100 (DOT Pre-Employment with FMCSA Clearinghouse). Optional $25 DQ File template.

Run a report

TL;DR

PSP, MVR, and CDLIS each surface different driver history. MVR is the issuing-state license transcript; CDLIS is the federal index of every state where the driver has held a CDL; PSP is the FMCSA crash-and-inspection record. A complete CDL pre-employment package needs all three plus a Clearinghouse query.

Key takeaways

MVR — issuing-state DMV transcript: license status, class, endorsements, convictions, accidents, administrative actions in one state.
CDLIS — federal AAMVA index: every state where the driver has held a CDL or CDL learner's permit, plus current license status in each.
PSP — FMCSA database from MCMIS: 5 years of crash data, 3 years of roadside inspection data at prior carriers (driver-applicable and vehicle-applicable violations).
Clearinghouse — FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse: drug-and-alcohol program violations recorded under §382.601/§382.605.
A full §391.23 + §382.701(a) CDL pre-employment file needs MVR + CDLIS + PSP + Clearinghouse query — the $100 DOT Pre-Employment package covers all four.

Three different federal-or-federally-supervised data sources sit at the heart of CDL pre-employment screening: the Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP), the Motor Vehicle Record (MVR), and the Commercial Driver License Information System (CDLIS). They are often discussed in the same breath, are sometimes ordered as a single bundle, and are routinely confused with one another by carriers running their first hire. They are not interchangeable. Each surfaces a different slice of the driver's history, each is governed by different federal authority, and skipping any one of them on a CDL hire leaves a documented gap in the §391.23 pre-employment file.

This guide breaks down each report side by side: who runs it, what it shows, what it does not show, and where each one fits into the CDL pre-employment workflow.

The 30-second comparison

MVR — state DMV transcript of one driver's license history in one state. The most detailed and granular of the three for ordinary traffic violations.
CDLIS — federal pointer database that lists every state where a driver has ever held a CDL or CDL learner's permit. Tells you which MVRs to pull.
PSP — FMCSA-administered database of crash and roadside-inspection records pulled from MCMIS. Tells you about on-the-road history at prior carriers, not license-status history.

Each one fills a different gap. None of them is a substitute for any of the others.

Side-by-side comparison

Attribute	MVR	CDLIS	PSP
Source	State DMV	AAMVA federal index	FMCSA / MCMIS
Scope	One state at a time	All states where driver held a CDL	All carriers in prior 5 years
License status	Yes (in that state)	Yes (every CDL state)	No
Convictions	Yes (citation-level)	No (status only)	No
Crash history	State-recorded only	No	Yes (5 years)
Roadside inspections	No	No	Yes (3 years)
Drug-and-alcohol violations	No	No	No
Required by	§391.23(a)(1), §391.25(a)	§391.23(a)(1) for CDL	Voluntary (best practice)
FastDriverScreening package	$40 MVR Basic	$60 MVR + CDLIS	$80 DOT Hire-Ready

MVR — the issuing-state license history

The Motor Vehicle Record is a state-level document. It is the issuing state DMV's official record of one driver's license: every action the state has taken on the license, every conviction the state has recorded, every accident the state knows about. The §391.23(a)(1) pre-employment rule requires an MVR from every state where the driver held a license in the prior three years.

What an MVR shows:

Current license status (valid, suspended, revoked, cancelled, disqualified, expired)
License class (A, B, C, or non-CDL operator) and endorsements (HazMat, tank, passenger, etc.)
Restrictions (no air brake, manual transmission only, etc.)
Medical certification status (most states; the §391.51 file still needs the underlying medical card)
Convictions for traffic violations during the look-back period
Suspensions, revocations, and administrative actions imposed by the state

What an MVR does not show:

Anything from a state the driver does not currently hold a license in (and never held one in the look-back period)
Crash data from carriers the driver worked for (PSP territory)
Drug-and-alcohol program violations recorded with FMCSA (Clearinghouse territory)

The MVR is the most granular of the three reports for ordinary moving violations, but it is also the narrowest in scope — limited to one state at a time.

CDLIS — the cross-state CDL pointer

The Commercial Driver License Information System is a federally-mandated database operated by AAMVA (American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators). It is not a database of every driver's complete record; it is an index that, given a CDL holder's identifying information, returns every state where that driver has ever held a CDL or CDL learner's permit, plus the current license status in each.

What CDLIS shows:

Every state where the driver has ever held a CDL or CDLP
Current license status in each state (valid, suspended, disqualified, surrendered)
Cross-state disqualifications under §383.73 reciprocity
A pointer to the state of record (so the carrier knows which MVR to pull next)

What CDLIS does not show:

Citation-level detail of any conviction (that is the underlying-state MVR's job)
Non-CDL driver history (CDLIS is a CDL-only database by definition)
Drug-and-alcohol violations (Clearinghouse territory)
Crash or inspection history (PSP territory)

CDLIS is the only authoritative way to know which states' MVRs to pull. A driver who held a CDL in Texas, lost it for a serious offense, surrendered the license, moved to Florida, and obtained a new Florida CDL can present a clean Florida MVR. The CDLIS check surfaces the Texas history and tells the carrier to also pull a Texas MVR — which the §391.23(a)(1) "every state where the driver held a license in the prior three years" rule requires.

PSP — the on-the-road history at prior carriers

The Pre-Employment Screening Program is run by the FMCSA and pulls data from the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS). It reports two distinct datasets:

5 years of crash data (every crash recorded by a state to MCMIS while the driver was operating a commercial vehicle for any carrier)
3 years of inspection data (every roadside inspection of any vehicle the driver was operating, regardless of whether violations were issued)

What PSP shows:

Crash date, location, and severity (PI = personal injury, PD = property damage, F = fatal)
Whether the driver was issued a citation in connection with the crash
Roadside inspection date, location, level (driver-only, vehicle-only, full)
Driver-applicable violations (logbook, hours-of-service, license issues)
Vehicle-applicable violations (brake adjustment, lights, tires) — these reflect on the prior carrier's vehicle, not the driver

What PSP does not show:

Adjudicated fault for crashes (PSP is not a court record; fault analysis requires the police report)
License-status history (MVR territory)
Cross-state CDL holdings (CDLIS territory)
Drug-and-alcohol program violations (Clearinghouse territory)

PSP is the only report that reveals on-the-road driver history at prior carriers — and it is the only report that includes inspection-level detail. A driver who has had three logbook violations in the prior eighteen months across two carriers will surface those violations on PSP even if no carrier-level dispute or audit ever occurred.

PSP is voluntary for carriers (not federally mandated for pre-employment), but it is the single most cost-effective screening layer for a CDL pre-employment package. The DOT Hire-Ready package at $80 adds PSP to the MVR + CDLIS bundle, and the DOT Pre-Employment package at $100 wraps in the FMCSA Clearinghouse pre-employment query that is mandatory under §382.701(a).

The three reports together

A complete CDL pre-employment file under §391.23, with all three reports plus the §382.701(a) Clearinghouse query, gives the carrier:

License status and conviction history in every state where the driver held a license (MVR + CDLIS)
On-the-road driver history at prior carriers, including crashes and roadside inspections (PSP)
Drug-and-alcohol program violation history recorded with FMCSA (Clearinghouse)

Each gap that any one of the four leaves is filled by another. Skipping one creates a documented hole in the file the auditor will find.

A worked example

Take a hypothetical applicant: forty-five-year-old CDL driver applying for a long-haul position. The application says ten years at a single prior carrier, currently licensed in Tennessee, no prior states.

Run an MVR alone. The Tennessee MVR comes back clean — no convictions, valid Class A with a HazMat endorsement, current medical card. Without further information, the carrier might extend the offer.

Add a CDLIS check. It surfaces a prior Kentucky CDL the driver did not list, surrendered five years ago when the driver moved. A Kentucky MVR is now required under §391.23(a)(1). It comes back showing a serious violation seven years ago — outside the §383.51 lookback, so not a current disqualifier, but a §391.21 disclosure issue worth flagging.

Add a PSP report. It shows two recent at-fault crashes at the prior carrier (one $30K property damage, one minor PI) plus four logbook violations across the inspection record. None of these would have appeared on either MVR or on CDLIS — but every one is material to the hiring decision.

Add a Clearinghouse query. It returns "no information on file." The driver has no drug-and-alcohol program violations recorded with FMCSA.

The four reports together produce a complete picture. Any single one would have left a gap.

When each one is required

Every CDL pre-employment screen — MVR, CDLIS, and Clearinghouse pre-employment query are all required under federal law (§391.23(a)(1) and §382.701(a)). PSP is strongly recommended but technically voluntary.
Every non-CDL commercial driver pre-employment screen — MVR is required under §391.23(a)(1). CDLIS, PSP, and Clearinghouse do not apply (Clearinghouse is CDL-only by §382.103; CDLIS by definition; PSP is voluntary in either case but most carriers run it for any commercial hire).
Every CDL annual review — MVR is required under §391.25. Clearinghouse limited query is required under §382.701(b). CDLIS is not required annually unless the driver had a state-of-residence change in the year. PSP is strongly recommended for any annual review of a long-haul driver.
Every CDL annual review for a driver who had a state-of-residence change — MVR (every state) plus CDLIS (to confirm the new state issued the CDL correctly).

How they fit together at FastDriverScreening

The five-package catalog maps cleanly onto the report set:

MVR Basic ($40) — single-state MVR for non-CDL annual reviews
MVR + CDLIS ($60) — the §391.23 cross-state CDL check
DOT Hire-Ready ($80) — adds PSP for pre-offer candidate vetting
DOT Pre-Employment ($100) — adds the §382.701(a) Clearinghouse pre-employment query (the full §391.23 + §382 stack)
Annual Refresh ($60) — MVR + §382.701(b) Clearinghouse limited query for the yearly recurring requirement

Pick the package by the regulatory step you are completing. For a CDL pre-employment screen, DOT Pre-Employment ($100) is the only package that satisfies §391.23(a)(1) plus §382.701(a) in a single order. For a non-CDL commercial driver, MVR Basic ($40) is sufficient. For a yearly compliance refresh on a long-tenured CDL driver, Annual Refresh ($60) covers the §382.701(b) and §391.25 requirements together.

Related guides

This guide is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. Verify every regulatory requirement against the current text of 49 CFR and consult qualified counsel for your specific situation.