Driver safety programs and MVR checks

The truck is where your techs are most at risk

A typical service tech spends hours a day on the road between jobs, often under time pressure and with a phone ringing. The federal data is blunt. Of the 5,070 fatal work injuries in the US in 2024, 1,937, or 38.2%, were transportation incidents^[1]. That is more than any other type of event.

Crashes also hit the business in less visible ways: a tech off work, a van in the body shop, a missed day of revenue, a liability claim if someone else is hurt, and higher auto premiums at renewal. With average hourly earnings for specialty trade workers at $39.05 in September 2026^[3] and US private employers paying $46.89 an hour in total compensation on average^[4], every lost day is expensive, before counting the work you could not schedule.

A driver safety program has four parts: who may drive, how you check them, how you coach them and what happens after an incident.

Part 1: write your driver standards first

Decide what an acceptable driving record looks like before you pull a single MVR. Written criteria protect you from inconsistent decisions and make conversations with candidates easier. Ask your commercial auto insurer for its guidelines; many carriers will tell you what they expect.

Write down the lookback period for each category, how you treat out-of-state violations and what a driver must report between checks. Most policies require employees to report any citation, suspension or crash, on or off duty, within a set number of days.

Part 2: check records the right way

You can pull MVRs directly from the state in some cases, but most companies use a background screening company. When a consumer reporting agency is involved, the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies. The FTC's guidance for employers says you must tell the applicant or employee in writing that you may use the information for employment decisions, in a standalone document and not buried in the application; get their written permission; and certify to the screening company that you complied^[2].

1. 01

   Disclose

   Give the standalone FCRA disclosure. If you want to check records throughout employment, say so clearly in the authorization^[2].

2. 02

   Authorize

   Collect written permission before ordering the report.

3. 03

   Review against criteria

   Compare the record with your written categories, not with gut feel.

4. 04

   Pre-adverse action

   If the record may disqualify someone, send the pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and the summary of rights, then give them time to respond. Records are sometimes wrong.

5. 05

   Adverse action

   If you still decide not to hire or to remove driving duties, send the adverse action notice.

6. 06

   Recheck

   Pull MVRs at least annually, or enroll drivers in continuous monitoring if your screening company offers it and your authorization covers it.

State and local laws can add steps, so have your screening company confirm the forms for each state you hire in.

Part 3: rules for the road

Write a vehicle use policy that covers the behaviors that cause most crashes and claims. Keep it to one page so drivers actually read it:

• No handheld phone use while the vehicle is moving. Calls and texts wait until the tech is parked.
• Seat belts for everyone, every trip.
• Load secured: ladders strapped, cylinders upright and restrained, nothing loose in the cab.
• Speed limits are the maximum, not the target, especially in residential streets.
• Backing: walk around before backing, use a spotter when available, and park so the first move is forward.
• No passengers who are not employees unless approved.
• Fatigue: after an overnight emergency call, the tech gets rest before the next scheduled route.

The phone rule only works if customers can still reach you. Route calls to the office, an answering service or an AI Employee such as Ava so the tech is not tempted to pick up at 45 mph, and give dispatch a clear way to send the next job when the tech checks in from the curb.

Part 4: telematics and coaching

Telematics devices and camera systems record speed, harsh braking, rapid acceleration, cornering and sometimes phone use. The data is only useful if it leads to a conversation. A workable weekly rhythm:

1. Every Monday, the fleet lead reviews last week's events and flags the top three drivers by risk score.
2. Each flagged driver gets a short, private conversation within the week: what the data shows, what happened and one change to try.
3. Good driving is recognized too. Post the most improved driver at the monthly meeting.
4. Patterns go into training. If harsh braking clusters on one route at 7:45 a.m., the problem may be the schedule, not the driver.

Onboarding a new driver

A clean MVR shows a person has not been caught doing much wrong. It does not show they can handle a loaded high-roof van on a narrow street. Build a short onboarding for every new driver, even experienced ones:

1. A walk-around of the vehicle: mirrors, cameras, height and weight, where ladders and cylinders go and how they are secured.
2. A supervised drive of at least one full service day with a lead tech or fleet lead in the passenger seat, including backing into a customer driveway.
3. A review of the vehicle use policy, the crash card and how calls and dispatch messages reach them while driving.
4. A signed acknowledgment of the policy and of any telematics or camera monitoring.

Repeat the supervised drive whenever someone moves to a larger vehicle or starts towing a trailer. Most first-month crashes happen in the vehicle a driver is least used to, often while backing.

After a crash: what the policy should say

Give every truck a crash card in the glove box. It should tell the driver to make the scene safe, call 911 if anyone is hurt, take photos, exchange information, avoid admitting fault and call the office. The office then logs the incident, notifies the insurer, decides on post-accident testing under your drug testing policy and schedules a review.

The review is about prevention, not blame. Ask what happened, what made it more likely and what would stop it next time. Many crashes trace back to rushing, so look at how tightly the day was booked.

How this affects insurance and hiring

Commercial auto underwriters look at your drivers' records, claim history and safety controls. A written program with MVR criteria, annual checks and telematics coaching gives your agent something concrete to present at renewal. It also matters for workers' comp, because a crash on the job is a comp claim; our article on workers' comp class codes explains how claims flow into your rate.

There is a hiring trade-off. Construction job openings were 289,000 in September 2026, up from 194,000 a year earlier^[5], and employment of HVAC mechanics is projected to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035^[6]. Very strict MVR criteria can remove good techs from your pool. A conditional category with coaching keeps more candidates while still controlling risk.

Example: a 22-van HVAC company

Example. A fictional company with 22 vans adopts written MVR categories, annual checks through its screening company and a telematics system. In the first month, the fleet lead finds that four drivers produce most harsh braking events. Coaching conversations reveal that two of them are running late every morning because of a slow parts pickup. The service manager moves parts staging to the evening before, and those events drop. The company also adds a rule that dispatch never calls a moving driver; techs call in when parked.