What the PSP Report Is
The Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) is an FMCSA-managed database carriers pull when deciding whether to hire you. It contains:
- 5 years of roadside inspections — every Level I, II, and III inspection, with violations
- 3 years of crash reports — every DOT-recordable crash, with preventability where assessed
- The driver's licensing data and any matched citations
When you sign a job application authorizing the employer to "pull your DOT records," the PSP report is what they get. Read it before they do. What is on yours has direct, dollar-for-dollar consequences for which carriers will hire you and at what pay.
Cost in 2026
The official PSP report is provided by NIC Federal, FMCSA's appointed vendor. Pricing for 2026:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Per-report fee (driver pulling own report) | $10 |
| Carrier annual subscription (under 100 trucks) | $25 |
| Carrier annual subscription (100+ trucks) | $100 |
| TR Information Fee (carrier-side) | small additional fee |
Drivers pulling their own report pay just $10 per pull. Pull yours at psp.fmcsa.dot.gov before every job change.
What Carriers Actually Look At
A typical safety director scanning your PSP looks for:
1. Out-of-Service (OOS) violations. Any OOS in the last 24 months is a near-automatic decline at insurance-driven carriers.
2. HOS / ELD violations. Especially false log entries, drove past 14, or no record of duty status. These hurt the most.
3. Speeding violations. A single 15+ over MPH violation is hireable. Two in 12 months and most carriers pass.
4. Reckless driving / careless / following too closely. Major red flag. Often a hard pass.
5. Crash history. Even a non-preventable crash slows hiring. Two crashes in 3 years is a problem.
6. Pattern. Three Level I violations is worse than three Level III, even if the points are similar.
Reading Your Report Line by Line
A PSP entry looks like this:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Date | 2025-08-14 |
| State | TX |
| Inspection Level | I |
| Violation | 392.2-S Speeding |
| Violation | 393.95(a)(2) Inoperative required lamp |
| Violation | 396.3(a)(1) Inspection/repair, parts and accessories |
| OOS | No |
| Recordable Crash | No |
What matters:
- Inspection level — Level I (full) is most rigorous. Level II is no underbody. Level III is paperwork only.
- OOS column — Yes/No on each violation
- BASIC category — Each violation maps to one of FMCSA's BASICs (Unsafe Driving, HOS, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazmat, Crash Indicator).
What Does NOT Appear on PSP
Some things drivers worry about that are NOT on PSP:
- Drug and alcohol test results (those are on the FMCSA Clearinghouse)
- Speeding tickets caught off-duty in your personal car
- Civil court records
- CSA driver score (PSP shows raw violations, not the calculated score)
- Anything older than 5 years for inspections, 3 years for crashes
Common Errors on PSP Reports
PSP errors are common — FMCSA estimates 5–10% of inspections have data quality issues. Common errors:
- Driver mismatch. Your CDL number was entered, but the actual violation belongs to another driver. Most common with rental fleets and team driving.
- Wrong VIN. A truck you never drove was entered against your record.
- Wrong duty status. A vehicle violation marked as a driver violation.
- Already-rescinded violation still showing. State agency reversed it but FMCSA never received the update.
- Crash with no DOT-recordable threshold met. A minor incident incorrectly classified as recordable.
If you see anything you do not recognize on your report, do not ignore it. File a DataQs request — see our DataQs Challenge Guide.
How to Pull Your PSP Report
1. Go to psp.fmcsa.dot.gov
2. Click "Get Your PSP Report"
3. Create an account (CDL number, last 4 of SSN, DOB)
4. Pay the $10 fee
5. Receive a PDF report by email within 24 hours, usually faster
Pull a fresh report:
- Before every job application — see what the carrier will see
- Annually as a routine check
- Immediately after any roadside inspection to verify what was logged
- After moving states to confirm your record transferred correctly
How to Use Your PSP When Job Hunting
Bring a printed copy of your PSP to job interviews if you have anything that needs explanation. Pre-empting a violation with a clear story (and showing the safety director you knew about it) is much stronger than letting them find it cold.
What works:
> "I had a Level I inspection in Arkansas in 2024 with a low-air-pressure violation. The trailer brake chamber had a leak that developed after my pre-trip — I have the inspection paperwork and the repair invoice from the next morning."
What does not work: pretending it is not there.
How Long Things Stay on PSP
| Record Type | Time on PSP |
|---|---|
| Roadside inspection (clean or with violations) | 5 years |
| OOS violation | 5 years |
| DOT-recordable crash | 3 years |
| Crash with preventability assessment | 3 years |
Items beyond those windows drop off automatically. You cannot make them drop off sooner — but you can challenge the underlying data through DataQs.
PSP and Employment: What Carriers Are Allowed to Do
Under federal law, carriers must obtain your written consent before pulling your PSP. They cannot:
- Pull it without your authorization
- Share the report with other carriers
- Use it as the sole basis for an employment decision (in some states)
- Hold it against you in any way for activity older than 3 years on crashes / 5 years on inspections
You have the right to dispute anything you see on your report through DataQs.
PSP vs MVR vs CSA: They Are Different
| Source | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| PSP | DOT inspections (5y) and crashes (3y) — federal |
| MVR | State driving record — license suspensions, traffic citations |
| CSA | Carrier-level safety scores; driver-level data exists but is not directly visible to public |
| Clearinghouse | Drug & alcohol test results |
Carriers pull all four when hiring. A clean PSP does not protect you if your MVR is bad, and vice versa.
How CSA BASICs Map to PSP Violations
Each violation on your PSP rolls into one of FMCSA's Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs). The category matters as much as the violation count.
| BASIC | Examples on PSP |
|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving | Speeding, reckless, careless, following too close |
| Hours of Service | False logs, drove past 14, drove past 11, no record of duty status |
| Driver Fitness | Expired CDL, expired medical card, missing endorsements |
| Controlled Substances | Drug/alcohol-related citations during inspections |
| Vehicle Maintenance | Brake violations, tires, lights, defective parts |
| Hazmat | Placarding, paperwork, packaging |
| Crash Indicator | DOT-recordable crashes (driver-level) |
A pattern of violations in one BASIC is more damaging than scattered violations across many. Two HOS violations and one Vehicle Maintenance violation looks like an HOS problem driver to underwriters.
How Insurance Underwriters Use PSP Data
Even after you are hired, your PSP affects your career. Carrier insurance underwriters re-rate fleets every 6–12 months. Driver-level violations roll up into the carrier's CSA scores, which directly affect insurance premiums. A driver with 4 violations in 12 months can:
- Get reassigned from premium freight to low-paying loads
- Be excluded from cross-border (Canada/Mexico) operations
- Be moved off accounts that have insurance-driven driver minimums
- Lose access to bonuses tied to carrier safety scores
The drivers who keep clean PSPs are the ones who get the cherry-picked freight. The drivers with cluttered PSPs end up on the freight nobody else wants.
What to Do Right After a Roadside Inspection
Most PSP errors enter your record during the inspection itself. Habits that protect you:
1. Keep your copy of every MCS-63 inspection form. Take a photo immediately. Officers occasionally lose paperwork.
2. Read the violations before signing. You can write disagreement language in the comments section.
3. Photograph the truck and any cited equipment before leaving the scene.
4. Note the officer's name, badge, and DOT number for the report.
5. Save weather, dispatch, and ELD evidence related to the stop.
6. Pull your PSP 30–60 days later. Inspections take 4–8 weeks to reach the federal database.
7. File a DataQs RDR within 90 days if anything is wrong — recent inspections are easier to challenge than old ones.
PSP Errors That Are Almost Always Worth Challenging
- Wrong driver name or CDL number on a violation
- VIN that does not match a truck you ever drove
- A speed violation when ELD/GPS shows compliant speed
- A vehicle violation refuted by maintenance records
- Crash listed as DOT-recordable that did not meet the threshold
- A violation that was reversed in court but never updated by FMCSA
See our DataQs Challenge Guide for the step-by-step process.
The Bottom Line
In 2026, your PSP is a $10, 24-hour-turnaround window into what every carrier will see when you apply. Pull yours twice a year. Dispute every error through DataQs. When something legitimate is on there, prepare the story before the interview. The drivers with the cleanest hiring outcomes are the ones who treat their PSP as their professional record — because that is what it is.