By Justin Seyl, NATMI Certified Director of Safety, 25+ years in CDL compliance.
49 CFR 391.23(a)(1) says a carrier has to make an inquiry for a new driver's motor vehicle record to every licensing authority where that driver held a license or permit during the preceding three years, within 30 days of the date the driver's employment begins. Under 391.23(b), a copy goes into the driver qualification file within that same 30 days and is kept under 49 CFR 391.51. FMCSA's 2022 rulemaking (87 FR 13192, Docket No. FMCSA-2018-0224) also removed the old requirement to certify that no record exists, leaving a documented good-faith effort as the requirement when no record comes back. I'll walk through what that actually means below.
I've overseen more than 650,000 citations and directed over 10,000 Safety Fitness Determination upgrades, and the pre-employment MVR is where I see carriers get sloppy more than almost anywhere else in the driver qualification file. At MVRs Online, we pull records for small fleets and safety managers, and the mistake we see most is waiting until the driver's first day, or worse, their first week, to even start the request. The clock doesn't wait for you. Order the MVR the moment you've decided to hire, so the record is in hand well inside the 30 days.
What exactly does 49 CFR 391.23(a)(1) require when you hire?
The rule is specific. Within 30 days of the date a new driver's employment begins, you have to make an inquiry to every driver's licensing authority (a state, or a foreign authority such as a Canadian province) where that person held a license or permit at any point in the preceding three years. Not just their current home state. If a driver lived and held a license in two other states during that window, you request records from all three.
That changed in 2022. FMCSA's final rule, effective May 9, 2022, replaced the word "State" in 391.23(a)(1) and (b) with "driver's licensing authority," so carriers also capture records for drivers licensed by a foreign authority rather than a state. If your hiring paperwork still says "State" and nothing else, update it. The regulation doesn't say that anymore.
Both the inquiry and the filing run on the same clock: 30 days from the date the driver's employment begins. Not 30 days from when you requested it. Not 30 days from the job offer. Thirty days from day one on the job. Miss that window and you've got a compliance gap sitting in an otherwise clean file.
What happens if a state doesn't send a record back?
This used to trip carriers up constantly. The old rule wanted both a documented good-faith effort and a certification that no record existed for the driver in that state. FMCSA dropped the certification in the same 2022 rulemaking. Under the current text of 391.23(b), if no record comes back from a licensing authority required to respond, you document a good-faith effort to get it.
That means keeping proof you actually made the request: a dated copy of the inquiry, a confirmation email, a timestamped online order, whatever shows you tried. Don't just shrug because a state's response is slow. Document the attempt, keep it in the file, and if the record shows up late, add it then.
How is the MVR request different from the previous-employer safety performance history check?
This is where I see the most confusion, because both requirements live in the same section of the regulation and get lumped together in a lot of hiring paperwork templates. They're not the same thing, and they don't belong in the same file.
The MVR request goes to a government licensing authority, the state or provincial DMV, and comes back as a driving record: tickets, convictions, suspensions, license status. That's the piece required under 391.23(a)(1), and it lands in the driver qualification file under 49 CFR 391.51.
The safety performance history request is a separate inquiry to the driver's previous DOT-regulated employers over that same three-year window. It covers employment verification, accident history, and historically, drug and alcohol testing violations. Under 391.23(c), those replies, or documentation of good-faith efforts to get them, go in a separate driver investigation history file under 49 CFR 391.53, kept for as long as the driver works for you plus three years after.
As of January 6, 2023, the drug and alcohol piece of that previous-employer inquiry is largely handled through a pre-employment query of the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse instead of direct contact with every past employer, under 49 CFR 382.413(b) in coordination with 391.23(e)(4). So you're running two parallel tracks for every new hire: one to the states for driving history, one to past DOT employers (now partly automated through the Clearinghouse) for safety performance. Keep them in separate files, because the regulations put them in separate files.
Does the pre-employment check end there, or is there an ongoing obligation?
The pre-employment pull is just the starting point. Under 49 CFR 391.25, you have to request an updated MVR on every driver you employ at least once every 12 months, covering at minimum the preceding 12 months of driving history, from every licensing authority where that driver held a CMV license during that period. Then you actually have to review it against the disqualification standards in 49 CFR 391.15 and document whether the driver still meets your minimum safe-driving requirements.
Carriers used to also collect an annual self-reported violation list from drivers under 49 CFR 391.27. That's gone. FMCSA rescinded it in the same May 2022 rulemaking because it duplicated the annual MVR pull under 391.25, and the agency estimated the savings from dropping that paperwork at $24.9 million over ten years (at a 7 percent discount rate) in the Federal Register notice for that rule (87 FR 13192, FMCSA Docket No. FMCSA-2018-0224, published March 9, 2022). If you're still running the old annual violation-certificate form, you can drop it. Just make sure you're not dropping it and skipping the annual MVR pull it was supposed to back up.
If you're trying to figure out whether your current hiring process actually covers both the pre-employment pull and the annual review correctly, that's exactly the gap we close. Order the MVR through MVRs Online before the driver's start date clock runs out, and you've got a clean, dated record showing you did the inquiry when the rule says you had to.
How MVRs Online Helps With Pre-Employment MVR Compliance
When a fleet owner or safety manager sends us a hiring file, the first thing we check is timing: was the MVR inquiry made, and the record filed, within the 30-day window under 49 CFR 391.23? We verify the record actually came from the right licensing authority or authorities, not just the driver's current home state, since a driver with recent history in a second or third state needs records pulled from each one.
We also check whether the record got reported correctly. Records can contain errors, such as a miscoded violation or a record matched to the wrong person. If something on the MVR doesn't match what the driver put on their application, we flag it so you can run down the discrepancy before it turns into a hiring decision you regret or a liability problem down the road. If a driver believes their record has an error, we walk through what a dispute with the issuing state actually looks like, since that's a state-level process and any correction is the state's decision, not something we or the carrier control.
For carriers running annual reviews under 391.25 on top of pre-employment checks, we help set up a repeatable process so the 12-month clock doesn't slip the way the 30-day pre-employment clock so often does.
If you're staring down a hiring deadline and you're not sure your file will hold up under an audit, don't guess. Order the MVR through MVRs Online now, get it checked against the 30-day window, and get the driver qualification file built the way 49 CFR 391.51 actually requires before that driver's first day arrives.
About the Author: Justin Seyl is a NATMI Certified Director of Safety and NATMI Certified Audit Specialist with more than 25 years in CDL compliance. He's personally overseen over 650,000 citations and directed more than 10,000 Safety Fitness Determination upgrades. He's the founder of CDL Consultants, CDL360, and CDL Manager.
FAQ
Does the 30-day window start at the job offer or the first day of work?
It starts on the date the driver's employment begins, not the date an offer is extended or an agreement is signed. Under 49 CFR 391.23(a)(1) and (b), the inquiry has to be made and the MVR copy placed in the driver qualification file within 30 days of that date, so the record should be ordered well before day one.
What if a licensing authority never sends the MVR back?
A certification that no record exists is no longer required. Under the current text of 49 CFR 391.23(b), a carrier documents a good-faith effort to get the record, such as a dated request and follow-up, and keeps that documentation in the driver qualification file.
Do I need MVRs from every state a driver ever lived in?
No. Records are required only from every licensing authority, including Canadian provinces and Mexican agencies, where the driver held a license or permit during the preceding three years, as required under 49 CFR 391.23(a)(1). Licensing history outside that three-year window isn't part of this inquiry.
Is the pre-employment MVR the same as the annual MVR review?
No. The pre-employment pull under 391.23(a)(1) happens once, within 30 days of the start of employment. The annual review under 49 CFR 391.25 is a separate, recurring requirement at least every 12 months for as long as the driver's employed, checked against the disqualification standards in 49 CFR 391.15.
Do I still need to collect a self-reported violation list from drivers every year?
No. FMCSA rescinded 49 CFR 391.27 effective May 9, 2022 because it duplicated the annual MVR pull required under 391.25. Older certificates can be kept for their applicable retention period, but new ones don't need to be collected.
Where does the previous-employer safety performance history go if not in the qualification file?
Under 391.23(c), it goes in a separate driver investigation history file under 49 CFR 391.53, kept for the length of the driver's employment plus three years. That's a different file from the driver qualification file, where the MVR under 391.23(a)(1) is stored per 49 CFR 391.51.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
- 49 CFR Part 391.23
- 49 CFR Part 391.51
- 49 CFR Part 391.53
- 49 CFR Part 382.413
- 49 CFR Part 391.25
- 49 CFR Part 391.15
- 49 CFR Part 391.27