The DMV Employer Pull Notice program: what fleets need to know

1. Before hiring, pull the applicant's DMV record. The rules generally call for a report issued less than 30 days before the hire.
2. Enroll the driver once hired.
3. Pay the fees: $5 for each enrolled driver and $1 for each annual or activity report.
4. Get a report at least every 12 months on each driver, as the program calls for, and read every activity report as it arrives.
5. Remove drivers who leave, and tell the DMV promptly so the reports, and the charges, stop.

Since April 1, 2026, the program runs electronically. An employer who enrolled on paper years ago should confirm that its account, contacts and driver list are current in the electronic system.

The cost is modest. A fleet enrolling 20 drivers pays $100, then a dollar for each report that follows.

Keep the paperwork together. The pre-hire record, the signed INF 1101 for any voluntary enrollee, each annual record and every activity report belong in the driver's file, where they can show, at renewal or after a claim, that the company knew what it was supposed to know.

For a carrier that needs a Motor Carrier Permit, skipping required enrollment can cost the permit itself: Under Vehicle Code section 34505.6, failing to enroll can lead to suspension of the MCP. The permit belongs to the company, so a suspension can reach every truck that operates under it, not just the one the unenrolled driver was assigned.

The simplest protection is to make enrollment a condition of the job. No Class A or B driver takes a truck out until the office has confirmed the enrollment, and the same check runs when a Class C driver earns an endorsement that moves them into the required group.

The permit, its insurance filing and the registration numbers travel together. Our guide to the Motor Carrier Permit and its MC 65 M filing covers the permit side, and whether your trucks need a USDOT or CA number covers the numbers it's built on.

Picture a landscaping company in the Inland Empire with two dump trucks that need Class B drivers, nine pickups and stake beds driven on regular licenses and one truck and equipment trailer combination that needs a Class A driver.

Under the program rules, the three heavy-truck drivers would need to be enrolled, and so would the owner, who drives a dump when someone's out. The nine Class C drivers are optional, and the company adds them with signed INF 1101 consents, because a pickup towing a mower trailer through busy streets can produce a serious claim of its own. Thirteen drivers at $5 comes to $65, plus a dollar per report.

Six months later, a report shows that a pickup driver's license has been suspended. The office takes him off driving until it's reinstated, a decision it couldn't have made from an annual check that was still months away.

Over the year, a handful of other activity reports arrive: two speeding convictions and one reported crash. Each goes through the same review, and each decision lands in the driver's file. At renewal, that file is the evidence that the program is more than a sign-up.

Pull notice pays off when a report reaches someone who acts on it. Name one person in the office as the owner, with a backup for vacations, and write down what happens next:

1. Read the report the day it arrives and match it to the driver and the truck they run.
2. Compare it with your written driver standard. A suspension or revocation means no driving at all until it's cleared; other entries are weighed by type and how recent they are.
3. Talk to the driver before deciding. Records sometimes carry errors, and the driver may already be fixing the problem.
4. Decide and record it: keep driving, coach, move to a different vehicle or stop driving for the company.
5. Tell your broker when a driver is restricted, reassigned or removed, so the driver list on the policy matches who actually drives.

Keep the enrolled list in step with payroll. Add new drivers when they start, remove them when they leave and check the two lists against each other every quarter. A former employee still enrolled costs a dollar a report; a current driver who was never enrolled can cost far more.

Underwriters price a fleet largely on its drivers, and pull notice enrollment speaks directly to that. It can show the company learns about a suspension or a serious conviction when it posts, not at the next renewal, and that someone acts on what they learn. Many underwriters ask whether a fleet is enrolled, and some like to see every driver in the program, not only the ones the law requires.

Pull notice doesn't replace the records an insurer orders for itself; many carriers pull their own MVRs at new business and at renewal. It covers the months between those pulls, which is where many unwelcome surprises about drivers turn up.

Enrollment alone isn't the point. The value comes from a written rule for what happens when a report arrives, applied the same way to everyone. Pair it with the standard in our guide to driver eligibility and MVR standards for fleets, and mention both on your submission: how many drivers are enrolled, how many of those are voluntary, who reads the reports and a recent case where a report changed a decision. Specifics like those tend to carry more weight than a box checked yes.

Pull notice reports also pick up crashes that post to a record, a useful check that incidents reached the office; what to do after an accident in a company truck covers the reporting side.

This guide is general information, not legal advice; confirm enrollment rules with the DMV. For how pull notice fits with the state's other rules, see motor carrier insurance requirements in California. Heavier units sit within our commercial truck insurance program, and you can ask for a fleet quote with your driver list.