Overview
A motor vehicle report, usually called an MVR, is a driving history maintained by the agency that issued a person’s driver’s license. It records the license itself, the violations and accidents attached to it, and any action the state has taken against it.
The record comes from a single authoritative source. Every state keeps a driving record for each licensed driver, and the MVR is a copy of that record. There is no compiling from multiple places and no question about which source is correct.
MVRs appear in screening far beyond commercial trucking. Any role that involves driving a company vehicle, driving to customer sites, transporting people, or carrying goods can involve one. Insurers frequently require them for anyone who will drive on the employer’s behalf.
What an MVR Contains
| License details | Number, class, issue and expiration dates, and any endorsements or restrictions. |
| Status | Whether the license is currently valid. |
| Traffic violations | Moving violations resulting in a conviction, with the offense and the date. |
| Serious offenses | Driving under the influence, reckless driving, and similar charges, recorded separately from ordinary violations in most states. |
| Accidents | Collisions reported to the state, where the state records them on the driving history. |
| Suspensions and revocations | Action taken against the license, with dates and the reason. |
| Points | Where the state operates a point system. |
Endorsements and restrictions are worth understanding, since they change what a license permits. An endorsement adds authority, such as carrying passengers or hazardous materials. A restriction limits it, such as requiring corrective lenses or an installed ignition interlock device.
License Status
Status is the first thing an employer looks at, because a role that requires driving requires a valid license.
- Valid. Current and in good standing.
- Expired. The renewal date passed. Usually administrative rather than disciplinary.
- Suspended. Driving privileges withdrawn for a period or until a condition is met.
- Revoked. The license is cancelled, and regaining it generally means applying anew rather than waiting out a period.
- Disqualified. Used for commercial privileges specifically. A driver can be disqualified from commercial driving while retaining an ordinary license.
- Cancelled or surrendered. Ended for administrative reasons or given up by the holder.
Suspensions are not always about driving. States suspend licenses for unpaid child support, unpaid fines, failure to appear in court, and lapsed insurance, among other reasons. A suspension on a record therefore does not by itself describe how someone drives.
Violations and Accidents
A traffic violation reaches the driving record when it results in a conviction, which usually means a guilty plea, a payment of the fine, or a court finding. A citation that was dismissed or successfully contested generally does not appear.
Many states allow a driver to attend a traffic school or defensive driving course in exchange for keeping a violation off the record, and where that happens the violation may never reach the MVR at all.
Accidents are recorded differently from violations. Some states list reported collisions on the driving record regardless of fault, some record only those meeting a damage or injury threshold, and some do not carry them on the MVR at all. An accident entry is therefore not a finding that the driver caused it.
Driving under the influence sits in a category of its own. It is both a traffic matter and a criminal one, so it can appear on a driving record and in court records at the same time, and the 2 sources describe it differently. The MVR shows the licensing consequence. A county criminal search shows the criminal case, including the charge and the disposition.
Point Systems
Most states assign points to a license when a driver is convicted of a moving violation. More serious offenses carry more points, and accumulating a set number within a period triggers consequences ranging from a warning letter to a required course to suspension.
Points expire on a schedule the state sets, which is frequently different from how long the underlying violation stays on the record. A violation can remain visible after its points have dropped off.
Point systems are not comparable between states. The scale differs, the number assigned to a given offense differs, and the thresholds differ, so a point total means something only in the context of the state that issued it. Several states operate no point system at all and track violations directly.
How Far Back an MVR Goes
There is no single answer, because each state sets its own retention rules for driving records. The same driver would produce a different history in 2 different states.
The general pattern is that ordinary moving violations remain visible for a period of a few years, serious offenses such as driving under the influence remain considerably longer, and some states keep certain commercial driving convictions permanently. States also set different periods for suspensions, accidents, and points, so one record can carry several different time windows at once.
An employer ordering an MVR usually specifies the period it wants, and the state returns what it holds for that window. A 3 year MVR and a 7 year MVR from the same driver are the same record viewed through different windows.
Traffic violations are convictions. The federal restriction on reporting adverse information older than 7 years applies to items that did not result in a conviction. A traffic conviction is a conviction, so that restriction does not remove it. What limits an old violation is usually the state’s own retention rule, not the reporting rule.
Some states place additional restrictions on how driving history may be used in employment, separate from what the record contains.
Who Is Allowed to Obtain One
Driving records are not public in the way court records are. The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, a federal statute enacted in 1994, prohibits a state motor vehicle agency from releasing personal information from a driving record except for purposes the statute lists.
The law was passed after personal information from motor vehicle records was used to locate and harm people, and it treats certain data, including photographs, Social Security numbers, and medical information, as highly restricted.
Two of the permitted purposes matter for employment screening. An employer may obtain records relating to a holder of a commercial driver’s license in connection with federal commercial driving requirements. And any requester may obtain a record where it has the written consent of the individual the record concerns.
The practical consequence is that an ordinary employment MVR runs on the applicant’s written consent, which a screening company obtains as part of the background check authorization. Obtaining a record without a permitted purpose carries civil liability and criminal penalties, so states verify the requester’s basis rather than taking it on trust.
Some states impose additional requirements of their own, including their own consent forms, account approval for requesters, and fees set by the state.
Commercial and Non-Commercial Records
A commercial driver’s license is issued by a state like any other license, and federal regulation sets standards that apply on top of it.
The differences show up on the record. Commercial drivers are held to lower alcohol thresholds and can be disqualified from commercial driving by conduct that would not affect an ordinary license. Convictions in a personal vehicle can still affect commercial privileges. Federal rules also require a commercial driver to report certain convictions to their employer and their licensing state within set periods, so the record is expected to stay current in a way an ordinary record is not.
Because a commercial driver may have held licenses in more than one state over a career, a single state MVR may not show the whole picture. Our page on CDLIS covers how commercial licensing history is traced across states.
What an MVR Does Not Cover
- Records from other states. An MVR comes from one state’s agency. A driver who moved may have history elsewhere.
- Criminal case detail. A driving under the influence entry shows the licensing outcome, not the charge and disposition from court.
- Dismissed citations, and violations resolved through a course where the state allows it.
- Parking and non-moving violations, in most states.
- Fault in an accident. An entry records that a collision was reported.
- Crashes and inspections recorded federally, which are covered on our PSP Crash History page.
- Drug and alcohol program violations for commercial drivers, which are held separately and covered on our FMCSA Clearinghouse page.
Where It Fits Under the FCRA
An MVR obtained by a screening company for employment purposes is part of a consumer report. Written disclosure and authorization are required before it is requested, accuracy obligations attach to what is reported, and the individual has the right to dispute anything incorrect. Our FCRA Overview covers those requirements in full.
The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act operates alongside those requirements rather than replacing them. It governs whether the state may release the record. The FCRA governs what happens to it afterward.
Because license status changes, employers in driving roles frequently re-check rather than relying on a record obtained at hire. Our page on Continuous Monitoring covers how ongoing checks work.
Where information from a driving record contributes to a decision not to hire, the required notice steps apply, giving the individual an opportunity to correct an entry before the decision becomes final. See The Adverse Action Process.