Are you using PSP Crash and Inspection History reports to help qualify your drivers? According to the FMCSA, the Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) provides carriers, and industry service providers access to commercial drivers’ safety records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS).
The FMCSA says the PSP is designed to “assist the motor carrier industry in assessing individual operators’ crash and serious safety violation history as a pre-employment condition.”
An essential screening tool that all motor carriers should consider. PSP can provide additional safety performance information that may not be disclosed by other background screening checks.
A PSP report shows a driver’s most recent 5 years of crash data and most recent 3 years of roadsides. The report shows all information regarding a crash — such as time, date, state, injuries, fatalities, stowaways, etc. The report also shows a carrier whether the FMCSA declared the crash preventable or non-preventable. Not all drivers will have information in PSP. Only those drivers that have had roadside inspections or DOT reportable crashes will have data in PSP.
The FMCSA conducted a safety impact analysis on their PSP program in October 2013. This study showed that transportation companies that used PSP had a 8% decline in crash rates on average over non-participating motor carriers. For mid-size carriers, crash rates declined even more significantly – 20.6% for motor carriers with 6 to 20 drivers, and 12.1% for carriers with 21 to 100 drivers. Out-of-service rates dropped on average 17.2% for motor carriers participating in PSP.
Remember that a PSP report is only one of the many tools an organization should use to determine the qualifications of a driver. The combination of an MVR, DAC Employment History File review, and a PSP can be very insightful, particularly when combined with other screening solutions such as a criminal history check and national sex offender registry check.
