Can a new driver start before the background check clears? What they can do while you wait

A new driver can sometimes start work while the background check is pending, but only in a role that keeps them away from riders, and in some programs not at all. Three separate gates decide it: the state or program rule that requires the check, the broker or health plan contract that credentials drivers before the first paid trip, and your insurer’s approval of the driver. All three have to open before a driver carries anyone. The background check guide covers which searches to run. This page covers what a driver may do in the gap between the offer and the results.

Can a new driver start work while the check is pending?

A driver can train while the check runs only if the rule that requires the check allows it. Carrying a member early is rarer: of the three state examples below, only one contract allows it, and only with a lesser check in hand. The deciding question is who requires the check. A search you run only because your own policy says so leaves the start date up to you. A search required by a state statute, a Medicaid agency or a broker contract sets the date for you. Find the strictest source you answer to, and treat its limit as the limit for every new driver.

The sections below start with three state examples, because they sit at three different points on the scale.

What state law and state contracts allow

Minnesota allows no work in a listed role before clearance, Florida allows training but no rider contact, and Washington allows a lesser check while fingerprints are pending.

• Minnesota: no start at all. Minnesota Statutes 174.30, subdivision 10 lists who needs a state background study before a special transportation provider may use them: owners of 5 percent or more, controlling individuals, managerial officials, every driver, every employee who assists a passenger during transport, and administrative staff who meet passengers, handle their property or data, schedule or dispatch trips, or do billing. The provider “shall not permit any individual to provide any service or function” on that list until the state notifies it that the person is not disqualified or has a set-aside for that provider. The subdivision names no exception for training or desk work, so a Minnesota company waits for the notice before it puts a new driver, dispatcher or biller to work. The operating standards apply to providers that receive state or federal grants or other financial assistance, so confirm with the Department of Human Services that your company is covered. The fingerprint steps are in the fingerprint guide.
• Florida: hire for training, wait for riders. Section 435.06 lets an employer hire someone into a screened position before screening is finished “for training and orientation purposes.” The employee may not have direct contact with vulnerable persons until the screening is complete and shows no ground for denial. The Medicaid provider statute puts nonemergency transportation drivers who work for transportation companies, transportation network companies or brokers through level 1 screening under that chapter, or an equivalent screening authorized by section 316.87. Florida defines a vulnerable person as a minor or a vulnerable adult, meaning a person 18 or older whose ability to care for themselves is impaired by a disability or the infirmities of aging. Many NEMT riders fit that, so plan on rider contact being covered (section 415.102).
• Washington: a lesser check while prints are pending. The Health Care Authority’s sample NEMT broker contract requires a State Patrol fingerprint check for new drivers and volunteers. When a contractor is still waiting on the prints and needs the person to begin, the contract lets it get a name-based WATCH report from the State Patrol in the meantime. Paratransit Services, the broker for nine Western Washington counties, passes the same rule to its subcontractors in its driver requirements, and it also wants a negative pre-employment drug test sent to it before a new driver is hired. Washington is the only one of the three examples that lets a new driver work with riders before the full check returns, and only because the contract says so.

If your state has no statute like these, the contract you hold with a broker or health plan decides.

What brokers and plans require before the first day

Broker contracts treat a driver who has not been credentialed as not working yet, and some want the checks done before hire.

• MTM. Its provider agreement, as posted by Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services, says no driver or attendant may perform transportation services until fully credentialed, and that MTM may not pay for trips run by uncredentialed drivers. The broker credentialing guide lists what each broker asks for.
• Louisiana Healthcare Connections (Medi Trans). The manual, revised February 20, 2025, says all criminal background checks, motor vehicle records and sex offender checks “must be completed prior to hire and annually thereafter.” A new driver goes on the roster with evidence that the background and drug and alcohol checks are done.
• Modivcare. Its reminder to out-of-network providers asks for an exclusion check on every driver upon hire or assignment, a copy of the license at the same time, and a motor vehicle report each year. A driver who matches on the federal exclusion lists is not eligible for Modivcare trips.

Where a contract says “prior to hire,” a conditional offer is the safe form. The person has an offer, no start date yet, and no spot on the payroll until the results are in.

What a new driver can do while the checks run

Where the program allows an early start at all, keep the driver in classroom and yard work with no rider aboard. Three things fit that rule.

1. Paid classroom training. First aid, CPR, PASS, defensive driving and the HIPAA module can all happen before the first trip. Time in training that the employer requires and that relates directly to the job is hours worked under 29 CFR 785.27 to 785.29, so it goes on a timecard and gets paid. The driver training guide lays out the course list.
2. Vehicle orientation with no one aboard. CareOregon’s manual passes down a requirement that drivers finish vehicle orientation and a road test in the kind of van they will drive “prior to transporting members and other passengers.” The practice drive is meant to come first. Ask your insurer whether the driver needs approval before that drive, as insurance approval for drivers explains.
3. Paperwork and policies. Signing the code of conduct, the drug and alcohol policy and the confidentiality agreement does not need a clear report.

Leave out anything that puts the person near a rider or a rider’s record: a ride-along on a broker trip, a shift in the dispatch seat, or a look at the manifest. The ride-along guide covers the wage, insurance and privacy questions that come with a trainee in the van. In Minnesota the statute names no exception, so ask the Department of Human Services before any paid training or practice drive begins.

Which checks you can finish before day one

Run every search you can the day the offer is accepted, so the only wait left is the agency’s.

• The exclusion search. OIG’s Special Advisory Bulletin says that to avoid civil monetary penalty liability, providers should check the exclusion list “prior to employing or contracting with persons.” It adds that an excluded person may not furnish services paid by a federal health care program, including administrative and management work such as an office manager’s. Search OIG and SAM yourself, save a dated copy, and you will know before the first paid day.
• License and driving record. These are separate from the criminal check, and they tell you whether your insurer will accept the driver. See motor vehicle records.
• The drug test. Where a federal rule applies, the result has to be back first. 49 CFR 382.301 says no employer may allow a commercial driver to perform safety-sensitive functions without a verified negative result from the medical review officer, and 49 CFR 655.41 says the same for covered transit employees before they perform a safety-sensitive function for the first time. Florida’s drug-free workplace statute defines a job applicant as someone offered a job conditioned on a passing test who “may have begun work pending the results,” but a broker or federal rule overrides that for driving. The drug testing guide covers who has to test.
• Fingerprints. The wait depends on the agency, so order them first. The fingerprint guide lists typical waits.

What if a report comes back bad after the driver started?

A driver you let start before the results is a current employee, so the notice steps apply before you end the job. Under the FCRA, an adverse action includes any decision for employment purposes that adversely affects a current or prospective employee (15 U.S.C. 1681a(k)). The FTC says that before you terminate an employee based on a consumer report, you give the person a copy of the report and the summary of rights, and after you act you give the adverse action notice. The pre-adverse action notice entry has the sequence.

Three more points apply when a start was allowed:

• Moving the driver off riders counts too. The FTC lists reassigning an employee among the adverse actions, so a report-based move off the road follows the same notice steps.
• Pay every hour worked. Hours in training count even if the report later disqualifies the person.
• Follow the program’s own notice rules. Florida’s section 435.06 asks an employer with reasonable cause to end employment to tell the employee in writing which specific record is the reason, and the only basis for contesting it is mistaken identity. The same section says no cause of action for damages lies against an employer that ends employment after notice of a disqualifying conviction or arrest.

How to write the wait into the offer

State the wait in the offer letter so nobody guesses at the start date. A workable order:

1. Send a conditional offer. List each pending item (background report, fingerprints, driving record, drug test, exclusion searches, broker and insurer approval) and say the job depends on all of them.
2. Collect the disclosure and authorization the same day. The FTC says the notice must be in writing, stand alone, and not part of the application. The written permission can sit on the same page.
3. Order the checks together. Do not run them one after another.
4. Hold the start date. Set it for the first day every required result is in, or for the first day of paid training where your program allows one.
5. Submit the driver for broker credentialing and insurer approval after the results are clean. Keep both approvals with the driver file.

Time the offer to your state’s fair-chance rules too. California’s Fair Chance Act generally stops employers with five or more employees from asking about conviction history before a job offer, according to the Civil Rights Department, so the offer comes first and the check second. The onboarding checklist shows the full first-week sequence.

Keeping unqualified drivers off the board

HealthRide keeps every driver’s credentials, such as licenses and training certifications, with their expiration dates in fleet management. It sends a reminder before one expires and flags an expired credential when a dispatcher tries to assign that driver to a trip. Enter a new driver’s credential dates as each document is verified, and the reminders and assignment warnings work from there.