What exactly does 49 CFR 391.25 require?

At least once every 12 months, a motor carrier must (a) obtain a copy of each driver's motor vehicle record from every state where the driver held a license or permit in the past 12 months, and (b) review that MVR to determine whether the driver still meets the qualification and non-disqualification standards in 49 CFR 391.15. A dated note identifying the reviewer must be kept in the driver-qualification file along with the MVR itself.

Who is covered by the 391.25 annual MVR review requirement?

Motor carriers operating commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce under 49 CFR Part 391. A CMV in this context is generally a vehicle at or above 10,001 lb GVWR/GCWR, or one designed to carry more than 8 passengers for compensation or more than 15 not for compensation, or a placarded hazmat vehicle. Purely intrastate operations are governed by state law, though most states adopt the FMCSRs by reference.

Is pulling an MVR once a year enough to fully manage driver risk?

It satisfies the 391.25 legal minimum, but it's a lagging indicator — a driver can accumulate violations between annual pulls that you won't see for up to 12 months. Many safety-conscious fleets layer in continuous MVR monitoring on top of the mandatory annual review. The annual review is the floor, not the ceiling.

What happens if a carrier skips the annual MVR review?

Failure to perform or document the annual review is a violation of 49 CFR 391.25 and can result in FMCSA enforcement action, out-of-service orders, and civil penalties. It also leaves a gap in the driver-qualification file that can significantly worsen a carrier's liability exposure after an accident.

Does the annual review apply to CDL drivers in personal vehicles?

The Part 391 annual MVR review applies to drivers operating CMVs for the motor carrier — it's tied to the commercial operation, not to what the driver does in a personal vehicle. However, CDL holders are subject to the federal no-masking rule, meaning traffic convictions in any vehicle (commercial or personal) are reported to the CDL state.

The FMCSA Annual Review of Driving Record (49 CFR 391.25), Explained

What 49 CFR 391.25 actually requires for the annual review of driving record, who it covers, and how to do it right.

If your fleet's compliance calendar has one line item under driver qualification that absolutely cannot slip, it's this one: the annual review of driving record under 49 CFR 391.25. It sounds routine — pull an MVR once a year, check it, file it. But the majority of fleets either skip a step, document it wrong, or mistake a simple MVR pull for the full review the regulation actually requires. This post walks through exactly what the rule demands, who it covers, and what "doing it right" looks like.

For a broader look at everything that has to live in your driver-qualification file, see our driver qualification file checklist.

What 49 CFR 391.25 actually requires

The regulation is straightforward but has three distinct components that must all be completed and documented:

Obtain the MVR. At least once every 12 months, the motor carrier must request a copy of each driver's motor vehicle record from every state where the driver held a license or permit during the preceding 12 months. If a driver held licenses in two states during that window, you need records from both.
Review the MVR for continued qualification. Pulling the record isn't enough — someone at the carrier must actually review it to determine whether the driver remains qualified under §391.11 and has not become disqualified under §391.15 (which covers disqualifying offenses such as DUI convictions, revocations, and certain serious traffic violations).
Document the review. The MVR itself and a dated note — identifying who performed the review — must be kept in the driver's qualification (DQ) file. The note is what turns a passive paper pull into a demonstrable compliance act.

All three steps are required. A carrier that pulls MVRs but keeps no written review notation is only partially compliant, and that gap will show up in a compliance review.

Regulatory grounding: The requirements above are drawn from 49 CFR 391.25 as published on the eCFR. The eCFR is the authoritative source: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-391/subpart-C/section-391.25. Rules change — always confirm against the live regulation before making compliance decisions.

Who is covered

49 CFR Part 391 applies to motor carriers operating CMVs in interstate commerce. The FMCSA defines a CMV (under 49 CFR 390.5) to include, broadly:

Vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating at or above 10,001 lb
Vehicles designed to carry more than 8 passengers for compensation or more than 15 not for compensation
Vehicles transporting hazardous materials in quantities requiring placarding

Purely intrastate fleets are governed by state law — but most states adopt the FMCSRs by reference, so the practical reach is broad. If you're unsure whether your operation falls under Part 391, confirm with your legal counsel or your state's DOT.

The "fitness determination" piece most fleets miss

The phrase in the regulation isn't just "pull an MVR." It's review the record "to determine whether the driver meets the driver qualification requirements." That means someone has to actually read the record and make a judgment — preferably documented with something more than a signature.

What are you looking for? The §391.15 disqualifying offenses include, among others:

Loss of driving privileges (revocation, suspension, cancellation, or denial of a license)
Certain criminal convictions — DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, using a CMV in a felony
Out-of-service order violations
Railroad-highway grade crossing violations (if they reach the serious threshold under §383.51)
Serious traffic violations committed in a CMV within specified time windows

A driver who has accumulated disqualifying events since the last review is no longer qualified to operate your CMVs — and if you haven't been looking, you may not know.

The annual review is the floor, not the ceiling

391.25 sets the legal minimum: once every 12 months. That's it. But consider what "once a year" actually means in practice: a driver can receive a DUI conviction, a license suspension, or a string of serious traffic violations in January — and if your next annual pull is in December, you won't see it for nearly a year.

That lag is why many safety-forward fleets pair the mandatory annual review with continuous or periodic MVR monitoring — automated systems that flag changes to a driver's record as they happen, rather than once a year. The annual review remains a hard compliance requirement; monitoring is the risk-management layer on top of it.

For a deeper look at how ongoing monitoring works and why it matters, see our post on MVR monitoring for fleets.

Documentation: what to keep and where

The MVR and the dated review notation both belong in the driver-qualification file — the DQ file that 49 CFR Part 391 requires motor carriers to maintain for each driver. Specifically:

The actual MVR document(s) from each state
A dated record of the review that identifies who conducted it

There is no FMCSA-mandated form for the review notation, but FMCSA has published a sample Annual Review of Driving Record form that many carriers use as a practical template. Whatever format you use, it needs to show the date and the reviewer.

These records must be retained for the duration of the driver's employment plus 3 years after the driver leaves.

Common compliance mistakes

Pulling from only one state when the driver held licenses in multiple states during the prior 12 months.
No written review notation — the MVR is filed but no one documented that it was reviewed and found acceptable.
Treating the annual pull as a checkbox without actually evaluating for §391.15 disqualification.
Missing the 12-month window — letting annual reviews drift to 13 or 14 months because no one owns the calendar.
Not updating the DQ file when a review reveals a disqualifying event.

Tying it to training

An annual MVR review is a diagnostic tool. If it surfaces violations — speeding patterns, at-fault accidents, a prior suspension — the right response isn't just to file the record and move on. It's to act on what you found: targeted remediation, additional training, or a formal fitness-for-duty conversation.

A fleet that uses the annual review as a genuine safety input, not just a compliance checkbox, will get far more out of it than one that treats it as paperwork.

Disclaimer: This post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. FMCSA regulations are complex and fact-specific. Always consult the eCFR at ecfr.gov and qualified legal counsel for compliance decisions affecting your operation.