How to Get and Dispute a DAC Report

If you hire CDL drivers, “pull his DAC” is muscle memory by now — but the process behind it trips people up on both sides of the desk. A carrier orders the report one way; the driver gets their own copy a different way; and when the driver says an entry is wrong, the dispute clock and your adverse-action duties kick in at the same time. Here’s how to get a DAC report, how a driver pulls theirs for free, and exactly what you owe a candidate when a contested entry is part of why you’re saying no.

Key takeaways

• Carriers order a DAC report through a HireRight employer account, usually bundled with DOT employment-verification services. There’s no public per-report price — it depends on your account and volume.
• Drivers get one free DAC report every 12 months from HireRight under the FCRA, by online form, phone, fax, or mail — and it arrives by mail, not instantly.
• A dispute triggers a 30-day reinvestigation. The driver flags the error with HireRight, sends documentation, and HireRight must verify, correct, or delete it — generally within 30 days.
• If a contested DAC entry factors into a rejection, you owe adverse action: a pre-adverse-action notice, a copy of the report, and the CFPB summary of rights before the final decision.

What a DAC report is (in one paragraph)

A DAC report — “Drive-A-Check,” now run by HireRight — is an employer-reported history file on a commercial driver: employment dates, reason for leaving, eligibility for rehire, DOT-recordable accidents, and drug-and-alcohol test data. Two facts drive everything in this guide. First, it’s employer-reported — former carriers submit the data voluntarily, so it’s only as complete as they made it. Second, it’s a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) — the federal law governing background-check data — which gives the driver the right to see it, dispute it, and receive notice before you reject them over it. For the full breakdown of fields and how to read them, see DAC Report Explained.

How an employer orders a DAC report

You order a DAC report through a HireRight employer (client) account, typically as part of a DOT employment-verification package rather than as a standalone product. You’ll need the driver’s written authorization first — that’s not optional, it’s an FCRA precondition. Once the order is placed, HireRight pulls the driver’s contributing-carrier history and returns it inside your screening dashboard alongside whatever else you’ve bundled (MVR, PSP, Clearinghouse query, and so on).

Two practical notes carriers learn quickly:

• There’s no published per-report price for employers. Cost depends on your contract and monthly volume, so it’s negotiated, not posted. (For contrast, FMCSA’s PSP is a flat, published $10 per record.)
• Ordering a report also enrolls that driver in the database. You’re both a consumer of the system and a contributor to it — which is exactly why DAC data exists at all.

One thing ordering a DAC report does not do: it doesn’t, by itself, satisfy your federal hiring homework. More on that below.

Ordering DAC won’t close your §391.23 file

Pulling a DAC report is a tool inside a larger required process — not the process itself. 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 — by phone, letter, email, or any reasonable method. A DAC report can help with the employment-verification piece, but the regulation requires the investigation, not the brand of report.

Two compliance points people get wrong:

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

So: order the DAC report if it helps you, but keep documenting the §391.23 inquiries. The report doesn’t check the box on its own.

How a driver gets a free DAC report

Here’s the side of the process every recruiter should understand, because it shapes how you treat the data. A driver is entitled to a free copy of their own DAC report once every 12 months — that right comes from the FCRA’s free-annual-disclosure rule for nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies (15 U.S.C. §1681j), which covers employment screeners like HireRight. The driver requests it directly from HireRight; HireRight will also include a list of every customer who received the driver’s DAC report in the prior two years.

One detail that surprises drivers: the report is mailed, not handed back digitally on request, and delivery typically runs roughly two weeks. If a candidate tells you they’re “waiting on their DAC,” that timeline is real — it’s not a stall.

How a driver disputes a DAC error — and the 30-day clock

If a driver believes an entry is inaccurate or incomplete, they file a dispute directly with HireRight — for free — explaining what’s wrong and attaching documentation (pay stubs, separation letters, emails, test results). Under the FCRA’s reinvestigation rule (15 U.S.C. §1681i), HireRight must then reinvestigate and either verify, correct, or delete the item — generally within 30 days of receiving the dispute. That window can stretch by up to 15 extra days if the driver submits additional relevant information mid-investigation; HireRight itself notes some disputes can run up to 45 days depending on the source.

If the reinvestigation finds the entry inaccurate or unverifiable, HireRight deletes it and sends the driver written confirmation. The FTC and CFPB both treat a “reasonable reinvestigation” as a legal obligation, not a courtesy — and that obligation has teeth. In 2012 the FTC fined HireRight $2.6 million for failing to assure accuracy, provide consumers copies of their reports, and reinvestigate disputes. The practical read for you: a driver who’s actively disputing a DAC entry isn’t waving a red flag — they’re using a process that exists precisely because bad entries happen.

The employer’s adverse-action duty when a DAC entry is contested

This is the part that creates real legal exposure, so it’s worth getting exact. If you’re going to reject a candidate and a DAC entry is part of the reason — contested or not — the FCRA requires a two-step adverse-action process:

1. Pre-adverse-action notice. Before you finalize the decision, send the candidate a notice, a complete copy of the DAC report you relied on (the actual document, not a summary), and a copy of “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act” — the standardized CFPB form. Then give them a reasonable window — commonly treated as about five business days — to respond or dispute.
2. Final adverse-action notice. Only after that window, if you still decline, send the final notice naming HireRight as the reporting agency (with its contact info) and stating that HireRight didn’t make the hiring decision — you did.

Skipping step one is one of the most common — and most litigated — FCRA mistakes in trucking hiring. See the FTC’s employer guidance and practitioner walkthroughs like Fisher Phillips’ four-step plan for the detailed mechanics. When a DAC entry is contested, the pre-adverse notice is doubly important: it’s literally the candidate’s chance to show you the entry is wrong before it costs them the seat.

What a DAC report won’t tell you — and how to close the gap

Even a clean, fully reinvestigated DAC report has a structural blind spot: it only reflects what a former carrier chose to formally report. Plenty of small and mid-size carriers don’t contribute at all, entries can be sparse or delayed, and a truck returned in good shape but logged as “abandoned” is a documented failure mode of the system. Disputes fix factual errors — they don’t fill in the records nobody bothered to file.

And the things that actually predict a bad hire rarely make it onto a form in the first place: chronic no-shows, ghosting after orientation (a driver who completes paperwork then vanishes), abandoned loads (leaving freight or the truck mid-assignment), repeated two-week stints, and plain unreliability. A driver’s previous dispatchers and recruiters know these things — they almost never write them on a DAC entry. That’s the reputation layer a DAC report leaves out, and it’s the same gap MVR and PSP miss too — see PSP vs DAC vs MVR for how those records divide up.

That’s the gap a peer-sourced driver-review database like cdlscan.com is built to fill. Instead of waiting on what a former employer formally coded — or didn’t — you can search a driver by name and read what their previous carriers actually said about reliability and rehire-worthiness, the signals a DAC report skips. It doesn’t replace your required MVR, PSP, DAC, or Clearinghouse checks, and it doesn’t change your adverse-action duties; it adds the firsthand-behavior layer those records can’t carry. (CDLScan lists more than 1 million driver reviews and runs around 23,419 searches a week; basic search is free, and a full report starts at $2.75 — those are the platform’s own figures.)

Frequently asked questions

How do I get a DAC report on a driver as an employer? Order it through a HireRight employer account, usually inside a DOT employment-verification package, after getting the driver’s written authorization. The report returns in your screening dashboard.

How does a driver get a free DAC report? Through HireRight — one free copy every 12 months — by online form, phone (866-521-6995), fax, or mail. It’s mailed, not delivered digitally, and typically arrives in about two weeks.

Is the DAC report really free for drivers? Yes, once every 12 months under the FCRA. HireRight may charge for additional copies within the same year, but the annual disclosure is free.

How long does a DAC dispute take? HireRight must reinvestigate generally within 30 days, with up to 15 extra days if the driver adds relevant information mid-process — and HireRight notes some disputes can run up to 45 days depending on the source.

What happens if a disputed DAC entry can’t be verified? HireRight must delete or correct it and send the driver written confirmation. Unverifiable information can’t stay on the report.

What does an employer have to do before rejecting a driver over a DAC report? Send a pre-adverse-action notice with a full copy of the report and the CFPB summary of FCRA rights, allow a reasonable response window (commonly about five business days), then send a final adverse-action notice if you still decline.

Does a candidate’s active dispute mean I should pass on them? No. Inaccurate DAC entries are common enough that the dispute process exists for a reason. A pending dispute is a prompt to verify, not an automatic disqualifier.

Can I rely on a DAC report alone to make a hiring decision? No. It’s employer-reported and often incomplete, it doesn’t satisfy your §391.23 investigation by itself, and it misses informal behavior like no-shows and abandoned loads. Pair it with the MVR, PSP, Clearinghouse, and a reputation check.