What a driver qualification file contains

It is a required personnel file, not an HR courtesy

Every motor carrier must maintain a driver qualification file for each driver it employs. The file is how the carrier shows that the person was licensed, medically certified, and otherwise qualified under Part 391 on the day of the trip. It is one of the first things a compliance review asks for, and one of the first things a crash investigation should ask for.

Typical contents include the application for employment, the motor-vehicle record, the medical examiner's certificate, road-test documentation or the equivalent, and the annual review of driving record. Some items have their own shorter retention rules inside the file. The file as a whole is kept for the driver's employment plus three years.

The clock is not the crash date

Unlike hours-of-service records, the qualification-file clock starts when employment ends. If the driver still works for the carrier, the file should still be open. If the driver left last year, the carrier still has three years on the file. That is why the evidence table does not treat this row as a six-month problem.

Document-specific rules still matter. An old medical card that was superseded may already be gone even though the file remains. Ask for the file as it existed on the crash date, including medical certification and the MVR then in effect.

How to ask for it

Name the driver, the crash date, and 49 CFR 391.51 in the preservation letter. Ask the carrier to keep the complete qualification file, including anything stored by a third-party hiring vendor. Then pull the carrier record so the letter goes to the legal name and address on file, not only the trade name on the door.