DAC Report Explained: What Trucking Companies See

If you hire CDL drivers, the DAC report is one of the first records you’ll pull — and one of the most misunderstood. It can tell you why a driver left their last three carriers and whether those carriers would take them back. It can also be thin, dated, or flat-out wrong. Here’s exactly what a DAC report shows, how to read it without getting burned, and where it leaves you blind.

Key takeaways

• A DAC report (Drive-A-Check, now run by HireRight) is an employer-reported history file on a CDL driver: employment dates, reason for leaving, rehire eligibility, accidents, and drug-and-alcohol test data.
• It’s a consumer report under the FCRA, so drivers can see and dispute it — and you must follow adverse-action steps before rejecting someone over it.
• DAC is voluntary and only as complete as past carriers made it. It does not satisfy your required §391.23 safety-history investigation, and it doesn’t replace the MVR, PSP, or Clearinghouse.
• Its biggest blind spot is informal reputation — no-shows, ghosting, abandoned loads — that carriers know firsthand but rarely report.

What is a DAC report?

“DAC” stands for Drive-A-Check. It started as a product from a company called DAC Services, passed through USIS Commercial Services, and is now owned and operated by HireRight. When recruiters say “pull his DAC,” they mean HireRight’s employment-history file on a commercial driver.

Two things matter most about what a DAC report is:

1. It’s employer-reported. The data comes from a driver’s former carriers, who submit it voluntarily. It is not a government database.
2. It’s a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The driver is the “consumer,” which gives them the right to see the report, dispute errors, and receive notice before you take adverse action based on it.

Most large carriers use it — industry estimates put DAC usage at roughly 90% of mid-to-large fleets — which is why it’s often called trucking’s version of a credit score.

What’s on a DAC report — and what carriers actually see

A DAC report compiles what previous employers chose to report. Typical fields include:

• Driver identifiers (name, date of birth)
• Each contributing carrier, with employment dates
• Reason for leaving / separation
• Eligibility for rehire (Yes / No / Review)
• Work-record comments
• DOT-recordable accidents and incidents
• Drug-and-alcohol test results and policy violations
• Equipment and trailer types operated

The line recruiters fixate on is eligibility for rehire. It’s a fast signal — but it’s also the one most prone to bias, because it reflects one former employer’s judgment, not a verified fact.

Retention runs roughly three years for drug-and-alcohol information and about seven years for other items, with employment history reaching back as far as a decade. A DAC report does not include credit scores or financial data.

Is a DAC report required? Where it fits §391.23

No federal rule requires you to use DAC specifically — the service is voluntary. What is mandatory is the investigation behind it.

Under 49 CFR §391.23, a hiring carrier must investigate an applicant’s safety-performance history with every DOT-regulated employer from the previous three years, and document the attempt. A DAC report is one accepted way to help satisfy the employment-verification piece — alongside calling, faxing, or emailing prior employers directly.

Two compliance notes that trip people up:

• Since January 6, 2023, the drug-and-alcohol portion of that history check is satisfied through the FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, not a phone call.
• The accident-history portion still requires contacting prior FMCSA-regulated employers directly.

In other words: pulling a DAC report does not, by itself, check the §391.23 box. It’s a tool inside a larger required process.

DAC vs. PSP vs. MVR vs. Clearinghouse

These four records get conflated constantly. They don’t overlap as much as people assume:

The takeaway: no single record is a substitute for the others. A clean DAC tells you nothing about a driver’s inspection history; a clean MVR tells you nothing about why they left their last job. For a full side-by-side of these records, see PSP vs DAC vs MVR.

How employers pull a DAC report — and what it costs

You pull DAC reports through a HireRight employer account, bundled with DOT employment-verification services. HireRight doesn’t publish a flat per-report price for employers; cost depends on your account and volume. (For comparison, FMCSA’s PSP is a published $10 per record, with a small annual subscription.)

One quirk worth knowing: ordering a report on a driver also enrolls that driver in the database. You are both a consumer and a contributor of the system.

Reading a DAC report responsibly: accuracy, disputes, and adverse action

Because DAC is a consumer report, the FCRA puts real obligations on you as the employer:

• Get written consent before pulling it.
• If you’re going to reject a candidate based on the report, follow the adverse-action process: send a pre-adverse-action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of the driver’s FCRA rights, give them time to respond, then send a final adverse-action notice.
• When a driver disputes an entry, HireRight must reinvestigate within 30 days and correct or delete anything it can’t verify.

This isn’t busywork. In 2012 the FTC fined HireRight $2.6 million for failing to assure accuracy, give consumers copies of their reports, and reinvestigate disputes. Treat DAC entries — especially a “not eligible for rehire” flag — as a starting point for a conversation, not a verdict.

The limits of a DAC report — what it misses

Here’s the part recruiters learn the hard way. A DAC report only reflects what a former carrier chose to formally report. Many small and mid-size carriers don’t report at all. Entries can be sparse, delayed, or filed in anger — a truck returned in good shape and logged as “abandoned” is a documented failure mode.

And even a complete DAC file is silent on the behaviors that actually predict a bad hire: chronic no-shows, ghosting after orientation, repeated short stints, attitude, reliability. Those are the things a driver’s previous dispatchers and recruiters know — but almost never write down on a form. (Closing that reputation gap is the focus of our guide on how to vet a driver before hiring.)

That’s the gap a peer-sourced driver-review database like cdlscan.com is built to fill. Instead of waiting on what an employer formally coded, you can search a driver by name and read what their previous carriers actually said — the reliability and rehire-worthiness signals a DAC report leaves out. It doesn’t replace your required MVR, PSP, DAC, or Clearinghouse checks; it adds the reputation layer they miss. (CDLScan lists more than 1 million driver reviews and runs around 23,419 searches a week, and the search itself is free.)

How drivers get and dispute their DAC report

It’s worth knowing the driver’s side, because it shapes how you should treat the data. A driver is entitled to a free copy of their own DAC report once every 12 months through HireRight, typically delivered within about 15 days. To dispute an error, the driver flags the entry with HireRight and submits documentation (pay stubs, emails, test results); HireRight then has 30 days to reinvestigate. Unresolved issues can be escalated to the CFPB or FTC.

If a candidate tells you a DAC entry is wrong and is actively disputing it, that’s not automatically a red flag — inaccurate entries are common enough that the dispute process exists for a reason.

Frequently asked questions

What does a DAC report show? A CDL driver’s employment history from participating carriers: dates, reason for leaving, eligibility for rehire, DOT-recordable accidents, and drug-and-alcohol test data.

Who runs the DAC report — is it the government? No. It’s run by HireRight, a private consumer reporting agency. The data comes from former employers, not FMCSA.

Is a DAC report required to hire a driver? No. DAC itself is voluntary. But the underlying §391.23 safety-history investigation is mandatory, and DAC is one way to help satisfy it.

How long does information stay on a DAC report? Roughly three years for drug-and-alcohol data and about seven years for other items, with employment history reaching back up to a decade.

How does a driver get a free copy of their DAC report? Through HireRight — one free copy every 12 months, usually delivered within about 15 days.

How do I dispute an error on a DAC report? The driver flags the entry with HireRight and submits supporting documents; HireRight must reinvestigate within 30 days and correct or remove anything it can’t verify.

Can a former employer put false information on a DAC report? Inaccurate or retaliatory entries do happen. That’s why the FCRA gives drivers the right to dispute, and why a single negative flag shouldn’t end a hiring decision on its own.

What’s the difference between a DAC report and a PSP report? DAC is employer-reported employment history from HireRight. PSP is FMCSA crash and roadside-inspection data. They cover different ground — most carriers pull both.