Driver Schedule Guide
Add a Driver to Trucking Insurance Policy: The Hire-Day Checklist
You hired a driver. He starts Monday. Before he turns a key, two files need his name in them: your FMCSA driver file and your insurer's driver schedule. It's easy to finish the first and forget the second.
This guide shows how to add a driver to trucking insurance policy schedules without a second round of questions: who has to be listed, what the underwriter asks for, where your FMCSA driver file already holds the answer, how to remove a driver, and what the federal filing says when an unlisted driver crashes.
Who has to be on the driver schedule?
Anyone who drives your trucks. If you hire a driver, do you need to place him on your commercial insurance too? Yes, and before his first trip, not after.
Progressive's commercial auto page puts it in two sentences: "Drivers with regular access to your commercial vehicle should be named on your policy. Additional drivers may be covered, but restrictions apply for anybody not listed on the policy." Your own policy has its own wording. Read it.
FMCSA draws the line wider than payroll. Under 49 CFR 390.5, an employee includes "an independent contractor while in the course of operating a commercial motor vehicle." So an owner-operator driving under your authority counts as a driver you employ under these rules, 1099 or not. Put him on the list you send your agent too.
The same section defines a driver as "any person who operates any commercial motor vehicle." That includes you, if you own the company and drive.
What the underwriter asks for when you add a driver
Insurers don't hide the list. One insurer's public fleet auto application has a driver schedule with six column heads: "No.", "Driver Name", "Date of Birth", "License Number", "Date of Hire" and "Years CDL Experience". Cover Whale's agent instructions for a mid-term driver add say to be certain "that all accidents and violations are disclosed" and that the name, license number, license state and date of birth are entered correctly.
You already collected most of it. FMCSA's driver application rule, 49 CFR 391.21, puts the same facts on the form your driver signs. The table lines them up.
| What the insurer asks for | Where it already sits in your driver file | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Full name and date of birth | The signed application lists the driver's name, address, date of birth and Social Security number. | 49 CFR 391.21(b)(2) |
| License number and state | The application lists the issuing authority, number and expiration date of each unexpired commercial license. | 49 CFR 391.21(b)(5) |
| Years of CDL experience | The application describes the driver's experience and the equipment he has driven. A CDL driver also lists the employers he drove commercial vehicles for in the 7 years before the last 3. | 49 CFR 391.21(b)(6) and (b)(11) |
| Accidents and violations | The application lists every accident and every traffic conviction other than parking from the last 3 years. | 49 CFR 391.21(b)(7) and (b)(8) |
| Driving history | You request the driving record from every state where the driver held a license in the last 3 years. | 49 CFR 391.23(a)(1) |
| Date of hire | Your own records. The same date starts the 30-day clocks in the checklist below. | 49 CFR 391.23(b) and (c)(1) |
When you ask us to add a driver, we ask for those items, the CDL class, and the driving record itself, no more than 30 days old.
Pull the driving record before you send the request, not after. Our guide to getting an MVR in every state shows where to order one. The application asks for three years of accidents. The state record covers the same three years. Compare the two before the underwriter does.
Underwriters ask about your standards too. The same fleet application asks how often you check MVR reports and whether your driving standards include no DUI in the past 5 years. If your new hire's record has marks on it, read our page on trucking insurance with a bad driving record first.
One thing you may not send. 49 CFR 391.23(k)(2) says a prospective employer "may not provide any alcohol or controlled substances information" to its insurer. That covers the testing history you collect from past employers. Send the driving record. Keep the drug and alcohol file in your own cabinet.
The hire-day checklist: driver file and insurance request, side by side
FMCSA's rules split the work in two: before the first trip, and within 30 days. Your insurance request belongs in the first group.
1.Get the signed application.
Under 49 CFR 391.21, a person can't drive a commercial motor vehicle until he has completed and signed an employment application for the motor carrier.
2.Put the medical proof in the file.
49 CFR 391.23(m) requires it before the driver operates a truck: the medical examiner's certificate, or for a CDL driver the CDLIS driving record from his current licensing state.
3.Run the Clearinghouse query and the drug test.
For a driver subject to DOT drug and alcohol testing, 49 CFR 382.701(a) requires a full pre-employment Clearinghouse query, with the driver's consent. 49 CFR 382.301 requires a verified negative drug test result before his first safety-sensitive work, with a narrow exception for a driver already in a testing program.
4.Send the add-driver request to your agent.
Put every item from the table in one message, with the start date, and ask for the insurer's answer in writing. Cover Whale's agent instructions say a mid-term change still has to be bound after it is quoted. Don't dispatch him on a maybe.
5.Within 30 days, file driving records and past employers.
49 CFR 391.23 gives you 30 days from the start date for two things: the driving record from every state where the driver was licensed in the last 3 years, and his safety performance history from DOT-regulated employers of the last 3 years. If a state or an old employer doesn't answer, document the attempt.
6.Every 12 months, pull the record again.
49 CFR 391.25 requires a new driving record and a written review for each driver at least once every 12 months. 49 CFR 382.701(b) requires a Clearinghouse query at least once a year.
A worked example
Say a driver's first day is March 2. The application, the medical proof, the Clearinghouse query, the drug test result and your insurance request all come before that day. The FMCSA 30-day items, the state driving records and the past-employer history, are due in the file by April 1.
Our chapter on how to hire and screen truck drivers covers the hiring side.
Removing a driver from your commercial truck policy
Removing is simpler than adding. Send your agent the driver's name and his last day. If a replacement starts the same week, send the add in the same message so the schedule changes once.
Three federal rules apply on the way out.
Keep the file
49 CFR 391.51(c) has you keep a driver qualification file for as long as the driver is employed "and for three years thereafter."
A suspended driver comes off the truck now
Under 49 CFR 391.15, a driver who loses his license is disqualified until it's restored. A motor carrier "shall not require or permit a driver who is disqualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle."
The driver has to tell you
The same section gives him until the end of the next business day after he receives a suspension or revocation notice. The regulation sets the deadline. Whether he meets it is a separate question.
Don't leave a departed driver on the schedule to save an email. Progressive's page says drivers and driving history affect your rate, so the list should match who drives.
What happens when an unlisted driver has a truck accident
It depends on your policy's wording. Nobody can promise you the answer in advance. Progressive's own line is that "restrictions apply for anybody not listed on the policy."
Your policy may also carry the federal MCS-90 endorsement. Its text, FMCSA Form MCS-90, doesn't mention a driver schedule at all. It says the insurer agrees to pay, within the endorsement's limits, a final judgment for public liability "regardless of whether or not each motor vehicle is specifically described in the policy." It also says no policy condition "shall relieve the company from liability or from the payment of any final judgment."
Read the next sentence of that form before you relax. "The insured agrees to reimburse the company for any payment made by the company on account of any accident, claim, or suit involving a breach of the terms of the policy." The endorsement is written for the person you hit. The reimbursement clause is written for you.
The same form says its public liability insurance "does not apply to injury to or death of the insured's employees while engaged in the course of their employment, or property transported by the insured, designated as cargo." So the form doesn't speak to the driver's own injuries or to the load. Those sit under other coverages: workers' compensation or occupational accident insurance for the driver, cargo insurance for the load. Our MCS-90 endorsement explainer covers the form in more detail.
The short version: put him on the policy before his first trip. It takes one message.
Frequently asked questions
If I hire a driver for my trucking business, do I need to place them on my commercial insurance too?
Yes. Tell your insurer about every driver before the first trip. Progressive's commercial auto page says drivers with regular access to your vehicle should be named on the policy, and that restrictions apply for anybody not listed.
How do you insure the drivers of your truck?
You don't buy each driver a policy. The motor carrier's auto policy has a driver schedule, and you add each driver to it. The MCS-90 endorsement text says its public liability insurance does not apply to injury to the insured's own employees on the job. A driver's own injuries fall under a separate coverage, such as workers' compensation or occupational accident insurance.
Does a part-time or fill-in driver have to be listed?
Tell your insurer about him. A driver is still a driver at two days a month. On the FMCSA side, 49 CFR 391.63 lets you skip the full application for a driver who works for more than one motor carrier in any 7 consecutive days. You must still have his name, Social Security number and license details before he drives.
What driving record does a truck insurer want for a new driver?
Ask your insurer for its driver standards before you hire. One insurer's public fleet auto application asks whether your driving standards rule out a DUI in the past 5 years and 3 or more moving violations in the past 3 years. Separately, FMCSA requires you to request the 3-year record from every state where the driver was licensed, within 30 days of his start date.
What happens if a driver who isn't on my policy has an accident?
The policy's own wording decides. If the policy carries an MCS-90 endorsement, the form says the insurer agrees to pay, within the endorsement's limits, a final judgment against the insured for public liability, and that the insured agrees to reimburse the insurer for a payment involving a breach of the policy terms.
Adding or removing a driver this week?
Send us your USDOT number and your driver list: each driver's name, date of birth, license number and state, CDL class, years of experience and start date. If we write your policy, we send the change request to your insurer. If we don't yet, we use the same list to start a quote.