PSP (Pre-Employment Screening Program)
An FMCSA program that gives motor carriers a driver's individual 5-year crash history and 3-year roadside inspection history for hiring decisions. PSP is driver-level data, distinct from the carrier-level SMS scores that CarrierOk computes and serves.
Learn moreWhat is PSP?
The Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) is an FMCSA service that lets motor carriers, with the driver's written consent, purchase a report of an individual commercial driver's safety history drawn from the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS). A PSP report contains the driver's crash involvement for the most recent five years and roadside inspection history — including violations — for the most recent three years, regardless of which carriers the driver worked for during that period. This makes PSP fundamentally different from the Safety Measurement System: SMS aggregates events at the carrier level to produce BASIC percentiles, while PSP follows the individual driver across employers. A carrier can have clean BASICs while employing a driver with a troubling PSP history, and vice versa. PSP is voluntary for hiring but widely used; FMCSA's own analysis found carriers using PSP reduced crash rates among new hires. Importantly, PSP reports do not include convictions, license status, or drug-and-alcohol clearinghouse results — those come from separate systems (MVRs and the FMCSA Clearinghouse). CarrierOk's profiles cover carrier-level data — inspections, crashes, BASICs, and authority for every FMCSA-registered entity — and do not carry driver-level PSP records, which require individual driver consent to access.
Why does psp matter?
Insurance Underwriters
Driver quality is the largest loss driver a carrier-level score can't fully see — ask whether the insured uses PSP in hiring, since documented screening practice is a meaningful underwriting signal on top of BASICs.
Freight Brokers
PSP is the carrier's tool, not yours — you can't pull a driver's PSP report, but a carrier that screens with PSP and can say so is demonstrating hiring discipline that carrier-level scores alone won't reveal.
Developers & Platforms
Don't expect PSP data in carrier APIs — it's consent-gated driver-level data. Model carrier risk from inspection, violation, and BASIC fields; driver-level screening is a separate, permissioned data domain.
Key values & thresholds
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Crash History Window | 5 years |
| Inspection History Window | 3 years |
| Data Source | FMCSA MCMIS |
| Consent | Driver written consent required |
Frequently asked questions
What shows up on a PSP report?
A PSP report shows a commercial driver's crash involvement from the past five years and roadside inspection records — including any violations cited — from the past three years, pulled from FMCSA's MCMIS database. It covers events across all carriers the driver worked for in that window. It does not include court convictions, license status, medical certification, or drug-and-alcohol Clearinghouse violations; carriers must check MVRs and the FMCSA Clearinghouse separately for those.
Is PSP the same as a carrier's SMS or CSA score?
No. PSP is driver-level history that follows an individual across employers, while SMS produces carrier-level BASIC percentiles that aggregate all of a carrier's inspections and crashes. A crash on a driver's PSP report also counts against whichever carrier employed them at the time, but the two systems answer different questions: PSP asks 'should I hire this driver,' SMS asks 'how safe is this carrier relative to its peers.' CarrierOk serves the carrier-level picture, including all seven BASIC percentiles.
Are carriers required to use PSP when hiring drivers?
No, PSP is voluntary. Federal regulations require carriers to investigate a driver applicant's safety history with previous DOT-regulated employers, but purchasing a PSP report is an optional way to supplement that process with FMCSA's own records. Many carriers and their insurers treat PSP as a best practice — FMCSA analysis associated PSP use with lower crash rates among new hires — and some insurance programs ask about PSP screening as part of assessing a fleet's hiring controls.
Related terms
CDL (Commercial Driver's License)
A license required to operate commercial motor vehicles in the United States, classified as Class A (combination vehicles over 26,001 lbs), Class B (single vehicles over 26,001 lbs), or Class C (hazmat/passenger). CarrierOk reports total CDL drivers per carrier as a fleet composition signal.
CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability)
FMCSA's enforcement and compliance program that uses the Safety Measurement System to identify and prioritize high-risk motor carriers for intervention. CSA drives BASIC percentile scores, warning letters, and compliance reviews. CarrierOk provides all 7 BASIC percentiles, alert flags, and historical trend data via API.
SMS (Safety Measurement System)
FMCSA's quantitative system for measuring motor carrier safety performance using inspection, crash, and investigation data. SMS produces the BASIC percentile scores that underpin the CSA enforcement program. CarrierOk computes all 7 BASIC percentiles from SMS source data and updates more frequently than FMCSA's monthly cycle.
DOT Inspection
A roadside examination of a commercial vehicle, its driver, or both, conducted to CVSA standards by state and federal enforcement. Every inspection's violations and out-of-service results flow into FMCSA's SMS, where they drive the BASIC percentiles and OOS rates CarrierOk serves for every registered carrier.
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