Fast, compliant background checks for transportation

No. Nothing in 49 CFR Part 391 subpart C asks for one. The subpart requires four investigations: the employment application, the motor vehicle record, the safety performance history and the medical qualification. Disqualifying offenses, including driving under the influence and felonies committed using a commercial vehicle, reach you through the driving record and the Clearinghouse rather than through a criminal index. Plenty of carriers run a criminal search anyway, for negligent hiring and insurance reasons or because their state requires it for school bus or passenger work, and those are sound reasons. A federal mandate is not one of them.

Three years, with every DOT regulated employer, and it has to include accident data. The previous employer owes you a reply within thirty days, and owes it even when there is nothing to report. Keep the record of the inquiry either way, because the documented attempt is what an auditor is looking for. See 49 CFR 391.23(a)(2), (d) and (g).

Partly, and the date in circulation is usually wrong. Since 6 January 2023 the Clearinghouse query replaces the written request to previous employers for drug and alcohol history, but only for employers regulated by FMCSA. You still write directly to a previous employer regulated by another DOT mode, and directly to the previous employer of a driver whose follow-up testing plan is incomplete. The accident history investigation was never folded in and remains a manual inquiry. See 49 CFR 382.413(b) and (c).

A full query, with the driver’s specific consent, before the driver performs a safety sensitive function, then at least one query a year. If an annual limited query shows that a record exists, you have twenty-four hours to run the full query or the driver comes off safety sensitive work. See 49 CFR 382.701.

No, and no provider can. The regulation says service agents are not employers for the purposes of this part, so the query belongs to the employer. We support the process and keep the consent trail with the rest of the file, and the query itself stays with you. See 49 CFR 382.701(a) and 49 CFR 382.107.

Fifty percent for controlled substances and ten percent for alcohol, as FMCSA minimums. Tests have to be unannounced and spread reasonably through the calendar year. The fifty percent rate has been held there since 2020, because the industry positive rate reached one percent. See 49 CFR 382.305(b).

On a fatality, or where the driver receives a citation for a moving violation and either someone was treated away from the scene or a vehicle was towed. Watch the two windows, because they differ: the citation must arrive within eight hours for alcohol and within thirty-two hours for controlled substances. See 49 CFR 382.303.

The paper route closes. Medical qualification has to be certified by an examiner listed on the National Registry, and for CDL and CLP holders the certificate travels electronically to the licensing state and reaches you on the CDLIS record. A nationwide exemption still permits reliance on a paper certificate issued within the previous sixty days, and it expires on 11 October 2026. FMCSA has said it does not anticipate further nationwide relief, so a qualification process built around a paper certificate arriving from the driver stops working on that date. See 49 CFR 391.43, 49 CFR 391.51(b)(6)(ii) and 91 FR 19255.

No. A physician’s recommendation under a state medical marijuana law is not a valid explanation for a positive result, and neither is a hemp or CBD product. DOT restated this in December 2025 while federal rescheduling remains incomplete. See 49 CFR 40.151(e) and (f).

Yes. A 1099 does not move anyone out of Part 382. The regulation defines a driver to include casual, intermittent or occasional drivers, and leased drivers and independent owner-operator contractors. If they drive for you, the duties attach. See 49 CFR 382.107.

Most reports are back within a day. A complete driver qualification file can take longer, because the safety performance history investigation gives a previous employer thirty days to reply, and because testing depends on the driver reaching a collection site. We will tell you which parts of a file are done and which are waiting, rather than leaving you to assume.

You do. KRESS supplies verified data and the notification workflow. The hiring decision, including any individualized assessment, belongs to the employer.