Hiring a driver creates a set of one-time paperwork obligations. Keeping a driver creates a recurring one — and it's the recurring one that quietly lapses while you're busy running freight.
49 CFR §391.25 requires two things from you at least once every 12 months, for every driver you employ:
- Pull the driver's motor vehicle record (MVR) from every licensing authority where they held a license or permit — §391.25(a).
- Review that record and document the review with a dated note naming who performed it — §391.25(b) and (c)(2).
Both documents live in the driver qualification file. Both are on the standard document request list in a new-entrant audit or compliance review. And because the obligation renews every 12 months forever, it's the DQF item most likely to be current at hire and expired at audit time.
This guide covers who the rule applies to, how the 12-month clock actually works, how to run the pull and the review, what the note must say, and the retention rules — plus the related requirement that was rescinded in 2022 and still haunts old checklists.
Who needs an annual MVR (short answer: every driver, including you)
§391.25(a) applies to "each driver it employs." Not each CDL driver — each driver. If you operate vehicles between 10,001 and 26,000 lbs with regularly-licensed drivers — the classic hotshot configuration — those drivers are covered by Part 391 and need the annual MVR and review like anyone else.
Two cases small carriers get wrong:
- The owner-operator's own file. If you drive, you are a driver you employ. Your own DQF needs an annual MVR of your own record, and yes, a note documenting that a review happened. It feels absurd to review yourself; the auditor will still ask for the paper.
- Drivers licensed outside the U.S. The rule says "driver's licensing authority," not "State" — a deliberate wording change FMCSA made so that records for drivers licensed in Canada or Mexico come from those authorities the same way. A Canadian-licensed driver doesn't get a pass on the annual pull.
Pull from every authority where the driver held a license or permit during the past 12 months. A driver who moved and swapped their CDL mid-year has two authorities to query; a single-state pull misses everything they did on the old license.
How the 12-month clock works
The deadline is rolling: each inquiry must happen within 12 months of the last one, per driver. There is no calendar-year deadline in the rule.
That gives you two workable systems:
- Anniversary-based: pull each driver's MVR on the anniversary of their hire (or of the last pull). Spreads the work out; requires per-driver tracking so nothing slips.
- Batch: pull everyone's MVR in the same month every year. Simpler to remember — but if you hired someone in March and batch in January, their first annual pull happens 10 months in, and every subsequent one must still land within 12 months of the previous. Batching works as long as the batch never slides past month 12 for any driver.
Either way, treat it like an expiration date, not a to-do item: the finding in an audit isn't "you forgot," it's a gap in the driving-record history of a person you kept dispatching.
Step 1 — pull the MVR
The MVR you need is the driving record from the licensing authority — the official abstract of the driver's violations, convictions, and license status. Where to get it:
- Directly from the state DMV (or the Canadian province / Mexican authority). Every state sells driving records; most have an online employer/requester process. Fees vary by state and are generally small.
- Through a driving-record service. Third-party MVR vendors pull from multiple states in one order. Fine for compliance — what matters is that the record comes from the licensing authority's data and covers the driver, not who transmitted it.
What you receive must be the record itself. A screenshot of a license-status lookup or a CDLIS snapshot is not an MVR; it doesn't show the violation history §391.25(b) requires you to review.
One distinction worth keeping straight: this annual pull is different from the pre-hire MVR under §391.23(a)(1), which reaches back 3 years across every state where the driver held a license in that window and must be in the file within 30 days of hire. The pre-hire pull looks backward at hiring time; §391.25 keeps the picture current every year after. They're separate documents with separate slots in the file — our DQF guide walks the complete list.
Step 2 — actually review it
§391.25(b) is not satisfied by filing the MVR. The rule requires you to review the record to determine whether the driver still meets the minimum requirements for safe driving and isn't disqualified under §391.15. Two things the rule tells you to weigh:
- Any evidence the driver violated the FMCSRs or hazmat regulations.
- The driver's accident record and traffic violations, with explicit attention to indicators of unsafe operation — speeding, reckless driving, and operating while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
In practice, run the review as three questions:
- Is the license still valid — right class, right endorsements, not expired, suspended, or revoked?
- Is anything on the record disqualifying under §391.15 or, for CDL drivers, §383.51 — a DUI conviction, leaving the scene, a felony involving the CMV, out-of-service violations?
- Is there a pattern — multiple speeding convictions, an at-fault accident plus a moving violation — that says this driver needs coaching, monitoring, or a harder conversation even though nothing individually disqualifies them?
If the answer to 2 is yes, the driver cannot legally operate a CMV, and continuing to dispatch them is a violation that compounds daily. If the answer to 3 is yes, the rule doesn't mandate a specific action — but an auditor reviewing a post-accident file takes a dim view of a carrier whose review note says "reviewed, no issues" over a record with three speeding convictions.
Step 3 — write the note
§391.25(c)(2) requires a note in the qualification file recording the name of the person who performed the review and the date it happened. That's the whole legal requirement, and it's the piece most often missing: carriers pull the MVR, file it, and never document that anyone looked at it.
A sufficient note is three lines:
Annual review of driving record — [driver name] Reviewed by: [your name], [title] Date: [date]. Record reviewed against §391.15 / §383.51 disqualifications and general safe-driving requirements. No disqualifying offenses found.
Sign it (a reproduction or electronic record is fine — the file itself may be electronic). If the review did find something, the note should say what and what you did about it: "two speeding convictions noted; counseled driver on [date]" reads very differently in an audit than silence.
In a one-person operation, you review your own record and the note names you as both driver and reviewer. Write it anyway.
Filing and retention
Both documents go in the driver qualification file per §391.51(b):
- the MVR from each annual inquiry — §391.51(b)(4);
- the review note — §391.51(b)(5).
Retention runs on two clocks:
- The DQF itself is kept for the entire employment period plus 3 years after the driver leaves — §391.51(c).
- The annual MVRs and review notes may be removed 3 years after the date of execution — §391.51(d). So a driver employed eight years needs roughly the last three annual cycles in the file, not all eight.
Keep every cycle until its own 3 years run out. The most common finding isn't a missing current MVR — it's a gap: this year's pull is on file, last year's never happened, and the file itself proves the 12-month clock was blown.
The rule that no longer exists: §391.27
Until 2022, drivers also had to give you an annual list of their traffic convictions — the "record of violations" or driver's certification of violations under the old §391.27. FMCSA rescinded that requirement effective May 9, 2022 (87 FR, Record of Violations final rule), because it duplicated the MVR you're already required to pull: the licensing authority's record is more reliable than the driver's memory.
Why this matters in 2026:
- Old DQF checklists and template packs still include the driver's annual certification of violations. It is no longer required. Don't chase drivers for a form that stopped existing — and don't let its presence on a template convince you it substitutes for the MVR pull, which it never did.
- If your file contains certifications collected before May 2022, they stay under the normal 3-years-from-date rule — by now, they've all aged out. You can stop keeping the form entirely.
- The MVR inquiry and documented review — the parts that survive — carry the entire load now. There is no backup requirement to catch you if the annual pull lapses.
The mistakes auditors actually find
- The pull happened; the review note doesn't exist. Filing the MVR without the §391.25(c)(2) note is the classic partial-credit finding — and it's a real cite, not a technicality.
- One state pulled, two licenses held. Drivers who moved mid-year need both authorities queried.
- The clock ran past 12 months. Usually a batching system that slid, or a driver hired mid-cycle who never got added to the batch.
- The owner has no file on themselves. In a new-entrant audit, the owner-driver's missing DQF items are treated exactly like anyone else's.
- A license-status check standing in for the MVR. Status is one field; the rule requires the record.
Run the free DQF completeness checker if you want to see where the annual items sit in the full file — it walks every §391.51(b) slot, including both §391.25 documents.
Put the cycle on rails
The §391.25 cycle is a deadline-tracking problem wearing a paperwork costume: per-driver due dates, a document that must be fetched from an external authority, a note that must be written and signed, and a 3-year retention clock on every cycle's output.
Roadworthy HQ tracks the annual MVR due date per driver, alerts you before the 12-month window closes, and captures the review note with the reviewer's name and date at upload — so the file shows an unbroken annual chain, audit-ready, without a spreadsheet. The 14-day free trial requires no credit card.
Related violation codes
The requirements covered above are cited as these violation codes in audits and roadside inspections: