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Department of motor vehicles

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Massachussetts Registry of Motor Vehicles on Washington Street in Boston's Chinatown

In the United States of America, a Department of Motor Vehicles (or DMV) is a state-level government agency that administers vehicle registration and driver licensing. The name "DMV" is not used in every state, nor are the traditional DMV functions handled by a single agency in every state, but the generic term is universally understood, particularly in the context of driver's license issuance and renewal.

Terminology and organization

Driver licensing and vehicle registration in the United States is handled by the state government in all states but Hawaii, where counties perform DMV functions.

Names

"Department of Motor Vehicles" is the name preferred by the Uniform Vehicle Code.[1] The phrase "DMV" is most commonly used to describe the agency (where it exists); however, diverse titles are used in different states:

State(s) Agency Name
California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Nebraska, New York, Nevada (recent), South Carolina, Vermont,[2] Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles
Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles (parent department varies)
Alabama, Arizona, New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division
Indiana, Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles
Ohio Department of Public Safety - Bureau of Motor Vehicles
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
Georgia Department of Driver Services (Driver's Licenses) (Previously Department of Motor Vehicle Services) & Department of Revenue/local tax commissioners (vehicle registration/tags)
Illinois Secretary of State, Vehicle Services Department and Driver Services Department
Iowa Department of Transportation
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet: Division of Driver Licensing (driver's licenses), Motor Vehicle Licensing System (vehicle registration and tags)
Arkansas, Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles
Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration
Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles-Under The Administration of the Executive Office of Transportation

Michigan

Secretary of State
Minnesota Department of Public Safety - Division of Driver and Vehicle Services
Nevada (historical) Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety (former title of a department which has since been divided)
New Jersey New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (note: New Jersey has differing titles for the high office holders in this part of government: The head of the New Jersey Department of Transportation is referred to as the "Commissioner," while the head of the MVC/MVS is referred to as the "Chief Administrator.")
North Dakota Motor Vehicle Division (vehicle registrations), Drivers License and Traffic Safety Division (driver licensing)
Oklahoma Department of Public Safety (driver licensing), Oklahoma Tax Commission (vehicle registrations)
Oregon Oregon Department of Transportation Driver and Motor Vehicles Services Division (DMV)[3]
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
Tennessee Department of Revenue, Taxpayer and Vehicle Services Division
Texas Texas Department of Transportation (Vehicle Title and Registration Services) and Texas Department of Public Safety (Driver License Division)
Washington Department of Licensing. Additionally the DOL handles Boat, Business, and Professional[4]

Organization within the government

File:Californiadepartmentofmotorvehicles.jpg
Headquarters of the largest DMV of all, the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
A BMV license branch in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Furthermore, there is much diversity in how the Department of Motor Vehicles (or equivalent) is situated within the structure of a state's government.

Hawaii is the only U.S. state where no part of the state government performs DMV functions; it has completely delegated vehicle registration and driver licensing to county governments.

In Kentucky and Tennessee, the Transportation Cabinet, and the Department of Revenue, Taxpayer Vehicle Services Division, respectively, set the policies and designs for licenses and vehicle registration; but the actual registration and licensing are handled by offices of the county governments.

In the District of Columbia, which is not part of any state, the DMV (formerly the Bureau of Motor Vehicle Services) is part of the city government.

In a few states, there may be a separate department which administers vehicle inspections (which are mandatory in a number of U.S. states with adverse weather conditions which make vehicle maintenance a high priority). In Virginia, the Department of Motor Vehicles handles both driver licensing and vehicle registration, while the Virginia State Police and the Department of Environmental Quality administer safety inspection and emission inspection, respectively. Note that the program is simply administered by the state; actual inspections are performed by specific authorized employees of privately owned gas stations and garages licensed by the state.

In some states, the DMV is not a separate cabinet-level department, but instead is a division or bureau within a larger department. Examples of departments which perform DMV functions include the Department of Justice (Montana), the Department of Public Safety (Texas, Ohio), the Department of [Taxation and] Revenue (Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and New Mexico), and the Department of Transportation (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin). In New Hampshire, the Division of Motor Vehicles is a division of the Department of Safety. In Vermont, the Department of Motor Vehicles is a subunit of the state Agency of Transportation.

Some states do not separate DMV functions into distinct organizational entities at all, but simply bundle them into a laundry list of responsibilities assigned to an existing government agency. For example, in the state of Washington, the Department of Licensing is responsible for driver's licenses, and vehicle and boat registrations in addition to most other business and occupational licensing. In Michigan and Illinois, the Secretary of State's offices perform responsibilities which would be handled by the DMV in other states.

Jurisdiction and exceptions

Almost all long-term residents ("long term" in this case means over 30 days) of a state who wish to operate motor vehicles must possess a driver's license issued by their state DMV, and their vehicles must show license plates (and current registration tags or stickers) issued by that agency.

Armed Forces active duty servicemembers are an exception to this general rule; by Federal law, servicemembers do not change legal residence when relocating to a new duty station unless they take voluntary action to do so. These individuals have the option of retaining the license and vehicle registration of their legal residence or obtaining a new license and registration locally. Some states also let out-of-state college students maintain their existing license and/or registration.

Vehicles owned by the federal government register with the General Services Administration, rather than a state. Drivers of these vehicles must still be licensed with their home state, however.

The Office of Foreign Missions at the U.S. Department of State has a Diplomatic Motor Vehicles program which issues driver's licenses to foreign diplomats and their dependents, registers their vehicles, and issues special diplomatic license plates.

In some states, besides conducting the written and hands-on driving tests that are a prerequisite to earning a driver's license, DMVs also regulate private driving schools and their instructors.

DMVs with the responsibility of registering automobiles also track detailed vehicle information such as odometer history in order to prevent automobile-related crimes such as odometer fraud.

Driver's licenses and identification

In countries with no national identification card (like the United States), driver's licenses have often become the de facto identification card for many purposes, and DMVs have effectively become the agency responsible for verifying identity in their respective states. See Identity documents in the United States.

Line for 1940 automobile licenses, Los Angeles DMV office (long lines were common in California before year-round vehicle registration renewal started in 1976 and renewal of driver's licenses by mail started in 1979)[5]

Jokes about DMVs have become common (and even somewhat of a cliché) in American comedy, and DMVs are often the subject of satire in television shows and movies. Humor about long lines, unenthusiastic employees and departmental policies is common, as are stereotypical depictions of driving testers, usually portrayed as unsympathetic and callous.

In a Dane Cook special on Comedy Central, he remarked that in the future, when everything is instantaneous, the DMV will still take "like nine seconds". The DMV has been more than once jokingly connected to Hell. In the Primus song "DMV", the DMV is compared to Hell. In American comedy (such as an episode of Pinky And The Brain, where it's revealed the DMV has a trapdoor to "Hades" and the TV series Reaper, where the DMV is where evil escaped souls from Hell are deposited since it's "the closest thing on Earth to Hell", as said by Satan himself). In Family Guy, it was told that "Nate Griffin", the black ancestor of Peter Griffin, founded the DMV to get his revenge on the whites after being in slavery, and in Seinfeld, Jerry remarks that the DMV "is like a leper colony" when explaining how the vast majority of people are unattractive. On the The Simpsons Patty Bouvier and her sister Selma work at the Springfield DMV. On That '70s Show, Fez had worked at the DMV briefly before he was fired from there.

Equivalent agencies in other countries

References

  1. ^ National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances, Uniform Vehicle Code and Model Traffic Ordinance § 2-301(a) (Charlottesville: Michie Company, 1968), 15. Section 2-301(a) is as follows: "A department of the government of this State to be known as the 'department of motor vehicles' is hereby created."
  2. ^ Vermont's DMV is a subunit of the state Agency of Transportation
  3. ^ Oregon DOT DMV
  4. ^ Washington State list of licenses
  5. ^ California Department of Motor Vehicles, DMV Milestones.
  6. ^ Service Alberta
  7. ^ Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles
  8. ^ Saskatchewan Government Insurance
  9. ^ Land Transport New Zealand
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