Glossary
Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP)
The Pre-Employment Screening Program, PSP, is an FMCSA service that gives motor carriers access to an individual driver's federal safety history for hiring decisions. With the driver's written consent, a carrier can pull a report showing that driver's crash records from the past five years and roadside-inspection records from the past three.
Driver level, not carrier level
PSP is about the person behind the wheel, not the company. That makes it different from the carrier-level records that drive most vetting: a carrier's authority, insurance, out-of-service rate, and CSA data describe the company, while a PSP report describes a driver's individual inspection and crash involvement. The two answer different questions.
Who uses it and how
PSP is used by carriers screening driver applicants, and it requires the driver's consent, so it is not a tool a broker uses to vet a carrier. The data it draws on, roadside inspections and crashes, is the same federal safety data that appears in aggregate on a carrier's record. Entries a driver believes are wrong can be challenged through DataQs, the same correction system that applies to a carrier's records. fleetfax works at the carrier level and does not pull driver PSP reports.
Related terms
Roadside inspection
An enforcement officer's examination of a truck, its driver, or both, at weigh stations and roadside stops. The most abundant safety evidence in the public record; results feed OOS rates and CSA scoring.
CSA and the BASICs
FMCSA's safety scoring system: seven behavior categories. For freight carriers the official percentiles are hidden from the public, but the raw data behind five of the seven is public.
DataQs
FMCSA's system for requesting review of federal data: carriers and drivers can challenge inspection violations, crash records, and other entries they believe are wrong. Successful challenges correct the public record retroactively.
fleetfax reads public FMCSA data and is not affiliated with FMCSA or the U.S. Department of Transportation. This page explains terminology; it is not legal advice.