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.

FastDriverScreening vs IDSC: Which to Pick When

IDSC is a state-DMV aggregator typically sold to high-volume employers and trucking schools through an account-and-deposit model — you set up an account, fund a balance, and pull MVRs against it. FastDriverScreening sells the same underlying DMV records on a pay-per-pull basis with no account, no deposit, and a bundled CDLIS query. Both routes lead to FMCSA-admissible MVRs; they differ in the workflow around the pull.

At a glance

Dimension	FastDriverScreening	IDSC
MVR pricing	$40 flat single-state (MVR Basic)	Per-state pricing on a deposit account; varies $5–$30+ depending on state plus account fees
CDLIS included	Yes, MVR + CDLIS package $60	Available as separate AAMVA pull
PSP + Clearinghouse bundles	DOT Hire-Ready $80 (adds PSP); DOT Pre-Employment $100 (adds the §382.701(a) Clearinghouse query)	Not part of the standard MVR product; separate FMCSA portals
DQ File template	$25 add-on	Not included
Turnaround	Same-day; minutes for instant states	Same-day for instant states
Account / contract	Pay-per-pull, no account	Account + deposit; some states require additional paperwork
Target customer	Owner-ops, small fleets, brokers, staffing	Insurance, schools, high-volume background-check users
Support	Email + phone, 24/7	Business-hours support; account-managed

Pick IDSC when

IDSC and similar state-DMV aggregators make sense for high-volume operations that already have the infrastructure to support an account-and-deposit workflow — insurance underwriting teams pulling thousands of MVRs a month, CDL training schools running rosters at intake, large background-check aggregators operating in the wholesale tier. The per-state pricing, while cheaper at the unit level than $40 flat, comes with the operational overhead of maintaining the account, funding the deposit, and handling state-specific paperwork (Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington each have their own quirks).

Pick FastDriverScreening when

FastDriverScreening is the right pick when you need an FMCSA-admissible MVR today, you don't want to fund an account or wait three days for onboarding, and you want CDLIS, PSP, or the FMCSA Clearinghouse query in the same transaction at a single price. The flat $40/$60/$80/$100 package pricing is more expensive per record than wholesale aggregator pricing — and makes no apology for that — because each package bundles the relevant federal queries, the DPPA permissible-purpose attestation, the Clearinghouse driver-consent handshake, multi-state routing, and a customer-support line answered by humans. For per-record volumes under roughly 50 pulls a month, the operational simplicity wins.

The other practical advantage: pay-per-pull receipts that map cleanly to a specific driver file. No reconciling deposit-account statements at the end of the month.

FastDriverScreening vs IDSC: which to pick when

At a glance

Pick IDSC when

Pick FastDriverScreening when

FastDriverScreening pricing