Top 12 Questions around Driver Risk Management: Answered
Have your most pressing questions around driver risk management answered including how monitoring works, what telematics aggregation is, the importance of CSA scores, and how driver training can be a proactive safety tool.
Driver safety and risk management aren’t to be taken lightly, and failing to establish a complete picture of your program can leave expensive blind spots. Together, HireRight and SambaSafety offer employers access to a full suite of driver risk management solutions. To help you understand what a program like this entails, we’ve answered commonly asked questions around driver risk management.
How Does Driver Monitoring Work?
On the day a driver is enrolled in your driver monitoring program, a baseline Motor vehicle records check (MVR) is automatically requested to establish a history of each driver’s record. Subsequent monitoring activities will be compared against this baseline to identify any developments.
When a potentially negative change is detected, the service will order the driver’s full MVR, with summaries of all recent driver activity. Then SambaSafety’s proprietary driver scoring system helps you easily identify high, medium, and low risk drivers and allows you to regularly evaluate individual driver performance data to consistently enforce company policies across multiple states.
Do I Need to Monitor Non-CDL Drivers?
No, but it might be advantageous since any employee who drives as part of their main job function represents liability for your organization. Non-CDL drivers can cause the same costly accidents, litigation, and reputation damage as commercial drivers. Continuous monitoring helps identify license suspensions, violations, or risky patterns before they result in incidents, protecting your organization regardless of vehicle type or CDL status.
How is Monitoring Different from an Annual MVR Check?
Annual MVRs only give a point-in-time snapshot. Monitoring alerts you to changes as they occur, helping prevent unqualified drivers from operating and reducing audit risk.
Can Continuous Driver Record Monitoring Supplement the Annual MVR?
According to FMCSA, motor carriers are to review the MVR of commercial drivers at least once every 12 months. In some states, continuous license monitoring may satisfy FMCSA's requirement for annual MVR checks.
Even in the case continuous driver record monitoring does not supplement the annual MVR, continuous monitoring still helps close the gap of the 11 months where a driver’s license status may have changed.
What is Telematics Aggregation?
Telematics aggregation pulls data from multiple telematics vendors, ELDs, dashcams, and sensors into a single, unified platform so fleets can analyze risk and driver behavior without switching systems.
What Types of Devices are Used for Telematics Monitoring?
Telematics monitoring is used by normalizing data from up to dozens of electric logging devices (ELDs) and cameras that can be installed in your fleet of vehicles. These devices can trace location plus telematic events such as speeding, harsh braking, or smoking inside a vehicle. This technology reduces manual data aggregation, so you can review contextual information in real time.
What is CSA Monitoring and Why Do I Need It?
CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) monitoring tracks your FMCSA BASIC scores, violations, inspections, and crash data. The implementation of CSA monitoring helps you spot risk trends early and stay ahead of interventions.
What are Online Driver Training Courses?
Online driver training courses provide interactive, self-paced instruction designed to equip all drivers—regardless of tenure, vehicle type, or skill level—with essential knowledge on topics such as safety, compliance, hours-of-service (HOS), defensive driving, distracted driving, cargo securement, and regulatory updates.
Can Monitoring Help Lower Insurance Premiums?
While organizations cannot directly control insurance premiums, implementing risk management strategies can certainly help influence the cost. This is done by using your driver monitoring data to prove a positive trend in safe driving. Also, having a proven track record of decreasing accidents and less violations gives organizations some leverage in finding more cost-friendly coverage.
How Do I Get Started with a Driver Monitoring Program?
There are a few things to consider before diving into a driver monitoring program. This can include insuring there is buy-in from everyone from c-suite team members to fleet managers and drivers. Additionally, there should be an understanding of both federal and state regulations that are applicable to your business. From there, create a general driver safety policy to begin holding your new and current employees accountable to.
Can I Pick and Choose What Components of the Driver Risk Management Solution I Want?
Yes. All driver risk management and ongoing monitoring components can be customized. This way, the solution is tailored to your organization's specific needs.
Is Driver Consent Required for Driver Monitoring?
Yes, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) does mandate employers to get written consent to pull MVRs from third parties. Getting written consent also helps promote transparency around consensual data collection. This also offers a safeguard for the employees to ensure they are promptly notified of any findings that might lead to negative consequences or adverse actions.
Want to learn more about driver risk management including challenges, considerations, and components? Download our complete guide to Driver Risk Management Solutions for Employers.
Release Date: March 2, 2026
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Motor Vehicle Records Check
Comprehensive State Department of Motor Vehicle Driving Records.
Driver Record Monitoring
Proactive monitoring of driver motor vehicle records provides notifications on new suspensions/violations.
DOT Employment Verification
Previous employment verifications can be used to help fulfill the FMCSA requirement for prospective drivers.
DOT Drug & Alcohol Verification
Helps facilitate compliance with DOT requirements for pre-employment and annual drug and alcohol history verifications.
Pre-employment Screening Program (PSP)
Pre-employment report contains five-year crash data and three-year roadside inspection histories.
CDLIS+
Checks CDLIS database to verify a driver’s current CDL and up to three prior licenses held.
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Automates the DOT driver qualification file management requirement and provides simplified analysis and reporting.
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Aviation screening services to help facilitate compliance with PRIA, FAA, TSA, and DOT regulations.
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Comprehensive instant and lab-based testing options for pre-employment and ongoing screening needs.
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Pre-employment and ongoing occupational health services for companies in regulated and non-regulated industries.