Checklist · verified against 49 CFR 391.21, July 2026
Truck Driver Application Checklist
Twelve items make an application compliant under49 CFR 391.21(b). This is not a form to hire against — it is the list to check your form against, whether that is an ATS template, a vendor packet or the example FMCSA publishes.
What the application must contain
Name and address of the employing motor carrier
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(1)Applicant's name, address, date of birth and social security number
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(2)Every address the applicant has lived at for the preceding 3 years
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(3)The date the application is submitted
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(4)Each CMV operator licence held or held in the preceding 3 years
Issuing licensing authority, number and expiration date for each.
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(5)Nature and extent of driving experience, including type of equipment
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(6)All motor vehicle accidents in the preceding 3 years
With date and nature of each, and the number of injuries and fatalities.
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(7)All violations of motor vehicle laws or ordinances in the preceding 3 years
Convictions and forfeitures of bond or collateral, parking violations excepted.
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(8)Any denial, revocation or suspension of a licence, permit or privilege to drive
With the reason for it.
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(9)Employment history for the preceding 3 years
Employer names and addresses, dates employed, reason for leaving, and whether the applicant was subject to the FMCSRs or performed a DOT safety-sensitive function.
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(10)CMV employment history for the 7 years before those 3
Commonly missed. Applicants who drove a CMV must account for ten years in total, not three.
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(11)Signed certification that the information is true and complete
In the applicant’s own signature, following the certification statement.
49 CFR § 391.21(b)(12)
The part that is not a field on the form
Paragraph (d) is a separate obligation and it is the one most often missed, because nothing on the page reminds you of it. Before the application is used, the carrier must inform the applicant in writing that the information he provides may be used, and his previous employers contacted, to investigate his safety performance history — and must notify him in writing of his due process rights regarding that information.
Paragraph (c) cuts the other way: you may ask for more than the twelve items. Nothing stops you collecting additional information, provided the required items are all there.
Where this document goes afterwards
The completed application is item one of the driver qualification file under § 391.51(b)(1), which is retained for as long as the driver is employed and three years after. TheDQ file checklist covers the other seven items and what may be thinned out of the file over time.
The safety performance history you gather using this application does not go in the DQ file. It belongs in the separate driver investigation history file under § 391.53, which restricts who may see it.
The application is a claim, not a record
Everything above is what the driver tells you. The MVR, the PSP report and the previous employer investigation exist to test it — and they test credentials and enforcement history, not what he was like to employ.
Carrier-reported driver reviewscover the part none of those records reach, as a layer on top of the required checks rather than a substitute for any of them. See alsoverifying the application andthe PSP report.