Hidden cost deep dive · Verified 17 June 2026

MVR and Drug Screening Add-On Cost: The Two Add-Ons That Materially Move the Per-Hire Total

Motor Vehicle Records and drug screening are the two most consequential add-ons in a workforce background check. Both are priced separately from the platform per-check rate. Checkr publishes the rates; GoodHire offers both but does not publish per-add-on rates. The total cost of a check with both add-ons is roughly double the Basic published rate.

Direct answer

How much do MVR and drug screening add-ons cost on a background check?

Checkr publishes MVR at $9.50 per check and drug screening at $60 per clinic-based test or $37 per onsite test. Adding MVR and clinic-based drug to a Basic background check ($29.99) brings the per-check total to $99.49, a 232 percent increase. GoodHire offers both add-ons but does not publish per-add-on rates.

Motor Vehicle Records (MVR)

MVR pulls the candidate's driving record from the state DMV (or equivalent record holder). It covers traffic citations, license suspensions, accidents, DUI convictions, and points on the record. Useful for any role that drives a vehicle on company business: delivery drivers, sales reps, field service technicians, rideshare drivers.

Checkr published rate: $9.50 per MVR check, single state. Multi-state MVR may carry additional fees.
GoodHire: MVR offered, per-MVR rate not published on the pricing page.
Enterprise vendors: Sterling, HireRight, Accurate, First Advantage all offer MVR in their packages; rates quote-only.

Rerun frequency matters for driving roles: many fleet operators rerun MVR annually or quarterly on active drivers. At gig-economy scale that rerun cost is the larger annual line item, not the initial MVR.

Drug screening

Drug screening typically refers to a 5-panel SAMHSA test (amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, opiates, PCP). 10-panel tests adding benzodiazepines, barbiturates, methadone, propoxyphene, and methaqualone are available at higher cost. The two delivery modes are clinic-based (candidate visits a partner lab) and onsite (employer collects the sample).

Checkr clinic-based: $60 per 5-panel SAMHSA test. Candidate visits a partner lab.
Checkr onsite: $37 per test where the employer collects the sample (significantly cheaper but operationally heavier).
GoodHire: drug screening offered, per-test rate not published.
Enterprise vendors: all four offer drug; rates quote-only. Some include drug screening in industry-specific packages (DOT for transportation).

Worked per-check totals at published rates

Using Checkr published rates only. Pass-through court fees not included (those are a separate $5 to $40 per check; see pass-through court fees).

Configuration	Cost per check	Increase vs Basic
Basic only	$29.99	Baseline
Basic + MVR	$39.49	+32%
Basic + drug onsite	$66.99	+123%
Basic + drug clinic	$89.99	+200%
Basic + MVR + drug clinic	$99.49	+232%
Complete + MVR + drug clinic	$159.49	+432% vs Basic

When to add MVR

Any role driving a vehicle on company business.
Insurance underwriter requirement (commercial auto policies sometimes mandate MVR review).
DOT-regulated roles (additional federal requirements apply).
Default off for non-driving roles.

When to add drug screening

Safety-sensitive roles (operating heavy machinery, healthcare patient-facing, transportation).
State-mandated for certain industries (varies; some states restrict employer drug-testing rights).
Insurance underwriter requirement or worker's-comp discount eligibility.
Default off for general office hiring; the $60 per-check cost combined with shrinking acceptance of pre-employment drug testing in most US states means the cost rarely pays back for non-safety-sensitive roles.

Clinic vs onsite drug economics

Checkr's $37 onsite rate is materially cheaper than the $60 clinic-based rate but requires the employer to handle sample collection per SAMHSA chain-of-custody protocol. For small employers this is impractical; for large hiring centres with on-site collection it can save $23 per test. At 100 drug tests per year that is $2,300 saved. Below 100 tests per year, the operational overhead rarely justifies the saving.

What enterprise vendors charge

We do not publish inferred MVR or drug rates for Sterling, HireRight, Accurate, or First Advantage. Third-party listings cite various per-add-on rates but those vary materially by contract volume and we do not republish unverified numbers. Ask explicitly in the enterprise RFP: per-MVR rate, per-drug-test rate (clinic and onsite), and rerun economics for active workers.