Driving Records in Hiring: What an MVR Shows and When We Suggest Employers Order One

An MVR driving record check is the report employers reach for when a job puts someone behind the wheel, and it is one of the few background reports that comes straight from a government source. It is also one of the most misunderstood: ordered for jobs that never involve driving, skipped for jobs that do, and read as a simple pass or fail. Serving landlords and employers since 1982 as a division of Tenant Screening Services, LLC, we have processed motor vehicle records for delivery companies, home-service businesses, sales teams and small fleets, and the same questions come up each time. Here is what the report actually shows, which positions call for it, and how we suggest reading one. This is general information, not legal advice; an employment attorney can confirm the rules in your state.

What an MVR shows

A motor vehicle record is the state licensing agency's file on a driver. Depending on the state, it typically lists the license status (valid, suspended, revoked or expired), license class and endorsements, restrictions such as corrective lenses, moving violations and their dates, accidents that were reported to the state, DUI or DWI convictions, and any points assessed under the state's point system. States differ on how many years of history they return and on how they describe the same offense, so a three-year record from one state and a seven-year record from another are not directly comparable. What an MVR does not show is anything outside the licensing agency's file: it is not a criminal record, it does not include out-of-state violations unless the home state recorded them, and it says nothing about insurance claims.

Why you cannot just look one up

Driver records are protected by the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act, which bars state motor vehicle departments from disclosing personal information from a motor vehicle record except for the permitted uses the statute lists, including release to a requester who has obtained the driver's written consent (18 U.S.C. § 2721). When an employer orders the MVR through a background screening company, the report is also a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which means the same standalone disclosure and written authorization you use for a criminal search must cover it, as the FTC's guidance for employers describes. In practice: get the signed authorization first, then order.

When we suggest ordering one

The test is simple: will the employee drive as part of the job, in a company vehicle or their own? If yes, order the record before the start date and consider repeating it on a schedule. Positions where an MVR is usually worth the cost include:

• Delivery, courier and route drivers, including part-time and seasonal.
• Home-service technicians, installers and inspectors who drive to customer sites.
• Outside sales and field staff who drive their own cars on company business and are reimbursed for mileage.
• Anyone who will transport clients, patients or children.
• Any position with a company vehicle, fuel card or auto insurance listing.

For commercial motor vehicle drivers the question is settled by regulation. Federal rules require a motor carrier to obtain the driver's record from every state where the driver held a license in the preceding three years, within 30 days of the start of employment (49 CFR 391.23), and to pull and review each driver's record again at least once every 12 months (49 CFR 391.25). Most of our customers are not regulated carriers, but the annual re-pull is a sensible model for any employer whose people drive.

How we suggest reading the report

Start with license status. A suspended or revoked license ends the conversation for a driving position until it is reinstated, regardless of what else is on the record. Next, look at the pattern rather than the single entry: one speeding ticket three years ago tells you very little, while three moving violations in eighteen months tells you something about habit. Treat alcohol and drug-related offenses, reckless driving and leaving the scene as a separate category from ordinary moving violations, and write that distinction into your standard. Finally, check that the name, date of birth and license number on the record match the authorization the applicant signed; a common-name mismatch is more frequent than people expect.

Put the standard in writing and apply it evenly

Decide before you order what disqualifies a candidate for a driving role: for example, a suspended license, a DUI within a set number of years, or more than a set number of moving violations in a lookback period. Apply the same standard to every applicant for that role and document the decision. If you turn someone down or withdraw an offer based on the record, the FCRA's pre-adverse and adverse action steps apply exactly as they do for a criminal report, which means a copy of the report and the summary of rights before the final decision (FTC). The individualized review we described for criminal records in our post on individualized assessment fits driving records just as well: the age of the entry, what it was, and how it relates to the job.

An MVR is inexpensive, fast and authoritative. For a role that involves driving, it is the one report we would not skip.