A DAC report is a background file on commercial truck drivers, maintained by the consumer reporting agency HireRight, that carriers pull to review your employment history, safety record, and drug and alcohol test results before deciding whether to hire you. It can cover up to ten years of your driving career, and because former employers self-report most of the data, errors are common. Federal law gives you the right to see the report, dispute anything that’s wrong, and take HireRight or an employer to court if they mishandle it.
What’s on a DAC Report
The core of the report is your employment history: dates of employment, positions held, reasons for separation, and whether each employer would rehire you. That rehire eligibility field carries enormous weight. A single “not eligible for rehire” notation, even if it stems from a paperwork misunderstanding, can follow you from application to application.
Beyond employment dates, the report typically includes:
- Accident history, with each incident classified as preventable or non-preventable. A string of preventable accidents is one of the fastest ways to get screened out.
- Drug and alcohol testing results, both DOT-mandated tests and non-DOT tests such as hair follicle screenings run under a carrier’s own policy.
- Equipment operated, meaning the types of trucks and trailers you’ve driven, which affects what positions you qualify for.
- Performance evaluations covering driving conduct, load handling, and compliance with company policies.
- DOT compliance history, including any violations previous carriers documented.
How Carriers Use It
Motor carriers are federally required to investigate at least three years of a driver’s safety performance history with DOT-regulated employers before hiring.1eCFR. 49 CFR 391.23 – Investigation and Inquiries The DOT doesn’t require carriers to use HireRight specifically, but the DAC report has become the industry’s default screening tool because it bundles everything a recruiter needs into one file.
Recruiters are looking for patterns and for discrepancies between what you wrote on your application and what your former employers reported. Frequent job changes, failed drug tests, preventable accidents, or notes about load abandonment all raise flags. And because nearly every major carrier pulls the same report, negative entries ripple across the industry rather than staying with one employer.
DAC Report vs. the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse
The DAC report is often confused with the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. They’re separate systems. The DAC report is a private product from HireRight. The Clearinghouse is a federal database run by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that specifically tracks drug and alcohol testing violations for CDL holders. Employers must query the Clearinghouse before hiring any CDL driver and at least once a year for every CDL driver they employ.2Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Query Requirements and Query Plans
Violations stay in the Clearinghouse for five years from the date of the violation determination, or until the driver completes the return-to-duty process and follow-up testing plan, whichever takes longer.3Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. How Long Will CDL Driver Violation Records Be Available for Release to Employers From the Clearinghouse Clearinghouse records follow their own regulatory process and can’t be challenged the way a DAC entry can. One practical difference matters when you’re reviewing your paperwork: the DAC report may include non-DOT drug testing results, like hair follicle tests, that would never appear in the Clearinghouse. A clean Clearinghouse record doesn’t guarantee a clean DAC report, and vice versa.
How to Get a Copy of Your DAC Report
You’re entitled to a free copy from HireRight once every twelve months, and the agency must deliver it within 15 days of your request. You also get a free copy if an employer takes adverse action based on your report, so long as you request it within 60 days of receiving the adverse action notice.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681j – Charges for Certain Disclosures Drivers who are currently unemployed and intend to apply for work within the next 60 days qualify for an additional free copy beyond the annual one.
To request your report, contact HireRight through their online portal or by phone at 866-521-6995. You’ll verify your identity with your full name, date of birth, and Social Security number. Don’t wait until you’re actively job hunting. Reviewing the report before you start applying gives you time to catch errors and dispute them without a pending offer slipping away.
One related right worth knowing: when a carrier rejects you based on the report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires it to give you a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of your FCRA rights, followed by a final adverse action notice identifying HireRight.5Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know If you didn’t get either notice, that’s itself a potential FCRA violation by the employer.
How to Dispute Errors on Your DAC Report
When you find something wrong, file a formal dispute directly with HireRight. You can do this online, by phone, or by mailing a written dispute letter. If you mail it, use certified mail with return receipt so you have proof of the date HireRight received it. That date starts the investigation clock.
Be specific. “My report has errors” won’t get results. Identify each disputed item precisely: the wrong termination date from a specific employer, an accident coded as preventable when the carrier’s own report classified it otherwise, a drug test result that belongs to someone else. Attach supporting documentation such as pay stubs showing your actual employment dates, accident reports, or correspondence from a former employer that contradicts the file.
Once HireRight receives your dispute, it must investigate within 30 days by contacting the employer or other source that furnished the data.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy If you submit additional information during that 30-day window, the deadline can extend by up to 15 more days. If the investigation confirms the information is inaccurate, incomplete, or can’t be verified by the source, HireRight must correct or delete the entry. A lot of errors get resolved here by default, because former employers that can’t produce records to back up their original report often end up with the entry removed.
What to Do If the Dispute Doesn’t Fix It
Add a Consumer Statement
If HireRight’s investigation doesn’t resolve the dispute in your favor, you have the right to add a brief written statement to your file explaining your side.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy HireRight can limit this statement to 100 words if it offers to help you write a clear summary. Your statement, or a summary of it, must then be included in any report sent to a future employer. It won’t erase the negative entry, but it gives context a recruiter might otherwise never see. You can also request that anyone who recently received your report be notified of the dispute.
File a Complaint With the CFPB
If HireRight ignores your dispute, misses the 30-day deadline, or you believe the investigation was a rubber stamp, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which oversees consumer reporting agencies. Complaints go through consumerfinance.gov, and companies typically respond within 15 to 60 days after the CFPB forwards them. Make your first filing count. The CFPB won’t accept a second complaint on the same issue.
Sue Under the FCRA
The FCRA gives you a private right to sue when HireRight or an employer violates it. For willful violations, you can recover actual damages or statutory damages between $100 and $1,000, plus punitive damages and attorney’s fees.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance For negligent violations, you can recover actual damages and attorney’s fees.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681o – Civil Liability for Negligent Noncompliance
For a truck driver, “actual damages” usually means the wages you lost because an inaccurate report cost you a job. If you can document that you applied for a position, were rejected based on the DAC report, and the report contained verifiable errors, that’s the foundation of a claim. The statute of limitations is generally two years from the date you discovered the violation, or five years from the date it occurred, whichever comes first. Because the statute allows recovery of attorney’s fees, many FCRA lawyers take these cases on contingency.
How Long Negative Information Stays on Your Report
The FCRA generally prohibits consumer reporting agencies from including negative information more than seven years old.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports That covers old accidents, terminations, and policy violations. Criminal convictions have no time limit under the FCRA and can be reported indefinitely.
One exception surprises a lot of experienced drivers: the seven-year cap doesn’t apply to consumer reports used for employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports Many CDL drivers earn above that threshold, so older negative entries that would otherwise age off can still appear. Old problems don’t necessarily disappear just because enough time has passed. If you’re at that pay level, pull your report and look at everything, not just the last seven years.