Hidden cost deep dive · Checkr rates re-verified 23 September 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 starting from $60 per clinic-based test or $37 per onsite test. Both drug figures are floors, not flat rates: Checkr states pricing varies by panel selection (4-panel to 10-panel), test method (breath, hair or urine) and clinic location, and a $90 after-hours fee applies for tests run between 7pm and 7am on weekdays or at any time at weekends. MVR carries state DMV access fees on top, passed through at cost. Adding MVR and a floor-priced clinic drug test to a Basic background check ($29.99) brings the per-check total to at least $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. Checkr footnotes this: standard state DMV access fees apply, vary by location, and are passed through at cost with no markup, so $9.50 is Checkr's fee rather than the landed cost.
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 covers any combination of substances from a 4-panel to a 10-panel test, and Checkr lists breath, hair and urine as available methods. The two delivery modes are clinic-based (candidate visits a partner lab) and onsite (employer collects the sample on its own premises).

Checkr clinic-based: starting from $60 per test. Checkr states pricing varies by panel selection and clinic location, and that a $90 fee may apply for clinics with expanded hours. The after-hours definition is specific: Monday to Friday between 7pm and 7am, or any time Saturday or Sunday.
Checkr onsite: starting from $37 per test, for a preset combination of drugs. Pricing varies by panel selection. Cheaper than clinic but operationally heavier.
Checkr random drug and alcohol test: starting from $10 per test, plus a $10 per test fee on top, for testing randomly selected existing employees rather than candidates.
Checkr occupational health assessment: starting from $23 per test, covering physical and lift tests, hearing and vision, TB tests and x-rays, immunisations and pulmonary function.
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, read from checkr.com/pricing on 23 September 2026: Basic $29.99 per report, Complete $94.99 per report, MVR $9.50 per check, clinic drug from $60 per test, onsite drug from $37 per test. Because the drug rates are floors, every row below that includes a drug test is a minimum rather than a quote. Pass-through court fees and state DMV access fees are not included (court fees 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 ($94.99) + MVR + drug clinic	$164.49	+448% 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 onsite floor of $37 is materially cheaper than the clinic floor of $60, but requires the employer to handle sample collection and to accept a preset combination of drugs rather than choosing the panel per candidate. At the two floors the saving is $23 per test, so 100 tests a year saves $2,300; below that the operational overhead rarely justifies it. Two things widen the gap in practice. Checkr prices both as starting-from figures that move with panel selection, and the clinic route carries a $90 fee for expanded-hours clinics, which is the rate that applies to post-accident and reasonable-suspicion testing outside office hours. If your testing is mostly unscheduled, model the clinic route at $150 rather than $60.

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.