How to Dispute Your DAC and PSP Report
A recruiter runs your background, then stops returning calls. Something in a report is doing the talking for you, and you have not seen it.
Two separate records matter here, and drivers routinely confuse them. They contain different data, are held by different organizations, and are corrected through entirely different processes. Sending a dispute to the wrong place costs you a month and changes nothing.
PSP and DAC are not the same thing
PSP is the Pre-Employment Screening Program, run through FMCSA. It contains your roadside inspection history for the past three years and reportable crashes for the past five — regardless of fault. It says nothing about who employed you or how you left.
DAC is an employment history report held by a private consumer reporting agency, HireRight. It contains what previous carriers reported about you: dates of employment, equipment operated, reason for leaving, and whether you are marked eligible for rehire. FMCSA has no control over it.
The single most useful question when something goes wrong: is the disputed item an inspection or crash, or is it something an employer said about me? That answer tells you which process to use.
Get both reports before you do anything
You cannot dispute what you have not read, and you should not rely on a recruiter's summary of it.
PSP: order your own record through the official PSP website at psp.fmcsa.dot.gov. Drivers pay a small fee. Identity verification is required.
DAC: request your file directly from HireRight. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act you are entitled to a copy of your consumer file, and you are entitled to a free copy if you have been denied employment based on it within the past 60 days.
Read both line by line. Check dates, carrier names, inspection locations, violation codes, and the reason-for-leaving field.
Disputing PSP data: DataQs
PSP data comes from state and federal inspection and crash records. FMCSA will not change it on request — the challenge goes back to the agency that submitted it, through the DataQs system at dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov.
File a Request for Data Review identifying the specific inspection or crash and stating precisely what is wrong: wrong driver, wrong CDL number, violation that was dismissed in court, citation for equipment that was not on your vehicle. The request routes to the state agency that filed the record, and that agency decides.
Evidence matters more than argument. A court disposition showing a dismissal, a repair receipt with a date, a bill of lading placing you elsewhere — those move a DataQs review. A paragraph explaining that the officer was unfair does not.
Responses typically take several weeks. Keep your case number and follow up if the deadline passes.
Disputing DAC data: the FCRA
DAC is a consumer report, which means the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs it and gives you real rights.
File the dispute with HireRight in writing and keep a copy. Identify the entry, state what is inaccurate, and attach whatever supports you — your own termination letter, a settlement statement, a written communication from the carrier. Under the FCRA the agency generally has 30 days to investigate and must inform you of the result.
Dispute with the reporting carrier at the same time. The company that furnished the information has its own obligation to investigate what it reported. If the carrier concedes the entry was wrong, ask it to correct the record with HireRight in writing, and keep that correspondence.
If the investigation does not go your way and you still disagree, you have the right to add a brief statement of dispute to your file. It is not a fix, but it gives a recruiter your side rather than silence.
What the FCRA requires of employers
An employer that intends to reject you based on a consumer report must, before taking final action, give you a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of your FCRA rights. After the decision, it must provide an adverse action notice identifying the reporting agency.
That first notice exists so you can respond before the door closes. If a carrier tells you verbally that your DAC is the problem and never provides anything in writing, that is worth noting — and it is worth asking for the report in writing.
Documents worth keeping permanently
Most disputes are won or lost on paperwork the driver either kept or did not.
- Every roadside inspection report you were handed, including clean ones
- Court dispositions for any citation, especially dismissals and reductions
- Your resignation letter or termination paperwork from each carrier
- Final settlement statements
- Repair invoices for anything cited as a defect
- A copy of every PSP and DAC report you have ever ordered, with the date
Photograph documents the day you receive them. Paper handed to you in a truck stop parking lot has a short life expectancy.
A realistic word about timing
Neither process is fast. DataQs reviews take weeks and depend on a state agency. FCRA investigations have a 30-day window that is often used fully. If you are job hunting right now, order both reports today rather than after the next rejection — knowing what they say is worth more than the dispute itself.
Report the carrier, too
If a company reported something it knew to be false, that is information other drivers need before they hire on. The pattern shows up long before any individual driver can prove it.