A driver can be fully qualified under federal rules and still be turned down by your insurance carrier. The DOT decides who can legally drive a commercial truck. Your carrier decides who it will insure, and that bar is usually higher, especially on driving record, experience and age.
Every driver you hire ends up in front of your underwriter eventually. Below is what the federal rules require, what underwriters actually look at, and the order to do things in so a new hire does not turn into a coverage problem or a surprise at renewal.
For interstate driving, 49 CFR 391.11 sets the minimum. A driver has to:
Drivers who got their commercial learner's permit on or after February 7, 2022 also had to complete Entry-Level Driver Training with a provider listed on FMCSA's Training Provider Registry before testing for a first Class A or Class B CDL. If you are hiring someone with a newer CDL, that training record is part of what an underwriter will want to see.
Texas lets a driver who stays inside the state drive a commercial vehicle at 18, as long as they have held a driver license for at least three years. The state also allows some alternative vision and physical standards for intrastate-only drivers. Those rules are in 37 Tex. Admin. Code 16.5. The moment that driver crosses a state line, or hauls a load that is part of an interstate move, the federal minimum of 21 applies.
Legal and insurable are two different questions, though. More on that below.
Every carrier has its own driver eligibility guidelines, and they vary from company to company. But the same handful of things come up on almost every new driver submission:
As one example of what a published guideline looks like, Berkley Technology Underwriters' fleet safety guidance asks for drivers who are at least 21, have at least one year of experience in the class of vehicle they will drive, and have no combination of three or more at-fault accidents or moving violations in the past three years (Berkley Technology Underwriters, Fleet Safety: Driver Qualification). Many trucking carriers ask for more than that. Ask your agent for your carrier's actual guideline before you post the job.
Major violations usually end the conversation. These typically include driving under the influence, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, driving with a suspended or revoked license, and any homicide or assault involving a vehicle.
Underwriters also pay close attention to certain smaller violations, because the research says they predict crashes. The American Transportation Research Institute's 2022 update to its crash predictor study looked at more than 580,000 driver records. A failure to yield violation was tied to a 141% increase in the likelihood of a future crash. An improper or failure to signal conviction, 116%. A prior crash, 113%. Reckless driving, 104%. Failure to obey a traffic sign, 85% (ATRI, Predicting Truck Crash Involvement: 2022 Update).
So a driver with a couple of "minor" tickets is not always a minor risk in the eyes of your carrier.
Here is the order to do it in. Most of these steps are required by the FMCSA. The last one is not required, but it is the one that protects your coverage.
Many trucking policies list or schedule drivers, and some exclude specific drivers by name. If a driver your carrier never approved, or one it excluded, is in an accident, you are looking at a coverage dispute at the worst possible time.
The MCS-90 endorsement that interstate carriers are required to have does not fix this for you. It protects the public. Up to the federal minimum financial responsibility limits, the insurer may have to pay a judgment the policy would otherwise exclude, and the endorsement gives the insurer the right to come back to you for reimbursement. We covered the MCS-90 in more detail in our guide to starting a trucking company in Texas.
The simple rule: no driver dispatches until the carrier confirms.
The work does not stop at onboarding. Underwriters look at your driver qualification files at renewal, and an auditor will look at them during a compliance review.
The rules changed a lot this year too, especially around English proficiency, non-domiciled CDLs and ELDs. We walked through all four in FMCSA Rewrote Four Rules This Year.
| Item | Strong | Weak |
|---|---|---|
| Experience in class | Several years, verifiable | Under a year, or cannot be verified |
| MVR, last 3 years | Clean, or one minor violation | Multiple moving violations, or any major |
| PSP report | Clean inspections, no crashes | Out-of-service orders, preventable crashes |
| Clearinghouse | No violations | Any unresolved violation |
| Driver file | Complete before the first dispatch | Put together after the underwriter asks |
Hiring is also a pricing decision. Commercial auto is still one of the lines going up in Texas (we covered why in Why Is My Commercial Truck Insurance Going Up in Texas?), and every driver you add is part of how your fleet gets priced at renewal.
For interstate driving, the driver has to be at least 21, hold a valid CDL from one state, read and speak English well enough to talk with the public, be medically certified, and pass a road test or present an accepted equivalent (49 CFR 391.11).
For intrastate-only driving, yes. Texas allows intrastate commercial drivers at 18 if they have held a driver license for at least three years (37 Tex. Admin. Code 16.5). Your insurance carrier may still set a higher minimum age, so ask before you hire.
There is no single legal number. Each carrier sets its own requirement, and it is usually stricter than the federal rules. Ask your agent for your carrier's guideline before you advertise the position.
Most carriers decline drivers with a recent major violation, like a DUI, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, or driving while suspended. Many also limit the number of moving violations and at-fault accidents in the last three years.
Pull the MVR from every state the driver was licensed in over the last three years, request safety performance history from prior DOT-regulated employers, order a PSP report, and run a Clearinghouse pre-employment full query.
The FMCSA Pre-Employment Screening Program report shows a driver's five-year crash history and three-year roadside inspection history. It requires the driver's written authorization and costs about $10 per report.
Yes. A pre-employment full query with the driver's consent is required before the driver performs safety-sensitive work, and every driver you employ has to be queried at least once a year (49 CFR 382.701).
For as long as the driver works for you, plus three years. Some items, like annual MVRs and medical certificates, can be removed three years after they were created (49 CFR 391.51).
Yes, before the first dispatch. Submitting the driver first lets the carrier approve or decline before the driver is on the road under your DOT number.
If you are hiring a driver, or thinking about bringing on a younger one, our transportation team can look over the driver's record and tell you how your carrier is likely to see it before you make the offer. Call 830-303-8300 or visit our trucking and transportation insurance page.