Posted: May 04, 2021
The Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) through the FMCSA offers reports on individual commercial drivers’ history. PSP reports can be helpful in a variety of ways. The FMCSA has found that carriers using PSP reports have seen an 8% reduction in crashes and a 17% reduction in driver out-of-service (OOS) rates. Screening drivers with PSP reports can improve safety and prevent future problems.
PSP reports include data for five years of crash history and three years for roadside inspection violations. These reports are based on data from the FMCSA MCMIS system. They record any crashes a driver was considered responsible for, in addition to a variety of roadside violations and out-of-service (OOS) violations. They do not include personal driving, local, or state infractions.
One of the critical advantages of a Pre-Employment Screening Program report is that PSP reports were designed around the same framework responsible for a carrier’s Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) score. That is to say, PSP reports include all of the infractions an individual driver was responsible for that would affect a carrier’s CSA score. Pulling PSP reports on candidates can be a critical way to prevent future damage to a carrier’s CSA score.
PSP reports can only be obtained for potential hires, not current employees. To pull a PSP report on your candidate, you must obtain their signed authorization, which should be kept in case of future audits.
By checking PSP reports on drivers before hiring, carriers can screen out potential hires that might cause future violations and negatively impact their CSA score.