JANUARY 8, 2019 – How big of a role does the Motor Vehicle Report play in your decision to hire drivers?
If you’re relying primarily on the MVR to check on a prospective hire’s driving history, you might not be seeing the full picture. And if you end up not hiring the driver? You paid more money than you needed to.
Although many hiring managers go straight to the MVR since it’s a DOT requirement, the FMCSA offers another (cheaper) background screen that is better suited for the hiring process: the Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP). When used regularly as part of the hiring process, fleets have been shown to have 17 percent fewer out-of-service incidents and 8 percent fewer crashes than those who rely on MVRs alone.
The reason, is that while an MVR shows a driver’s history in the state where they’re licensed, violations or license suspensions that occurred while licensed in another state won’t be included on the report. The PSP, on the other hand, aggregates information from all motor vehicle agencies in the United States to show a comprehensive view of the driver’s five-year crash history and three-year inspection and violation history.
As the hiring manager, this could uncover potentially unsafe behaviors that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It will also show where your prospective driver was working at the time the violation occurred, allowing you to better validate the employment history they provided during the application process.
If the PSP comes back clean, and you’re ready to make an offer, then you can go ahead and run the required MVR to complete their driver file requirements. Otherwise, you’ll only be out the cost of the PSP – which can be about 50-75% cheaper than the cost of an MVR.
At Foley, we’ll run a PSP on each prospective driver, validate the information generated on each report and then send you the results. Once complete, you’ll have immediate access to a driver’s PSP in your secure portal account where it will become a part of your applicant’s record.
Ready to learn more? Fill out our contact form here or give us a call at (860) 815-0764.