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. Similar departments exist in Canada. The name "DMV" is not used in every state or province, 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.

[edit] 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. In Canada, driver licensing and vehicle registration is handled at the provincial government level.

[edit] Names

[edit] United States

In the United States "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 jurisdictions. The last remaining autonomous division of the government.

[edit] Canada

[edit] Organization within the government

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] The DMV in popular culture

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (January 2008)

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)^[7]

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.

[edit] Equivalent agencies in other countries

• Australia

• Queensland - Queensland Transport
• New South Wales - Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA)
• ACT - Road Transport Authority
• Victoria - Vicroads
• Tasmania - Department of Infrastructure, Energy & Resources
• South Australia - Transport SA
• Northern Territory - Motor Vehicle Registry
• Western Australia - Department for Planning and Infrastructure

• Brazil - At national level, DENATRAN, that coordinates all governamental effort. But each state has it own DETRAN (such as DETRAN-SP, that belongs to state of São Paulo), that manages actual registration of vehicles, emission of driver's licenses, etc.
• Bulgaria - Traffic Police
• Canada

• Alberta - Service Alberta^[8]
• British Columbia - Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles^[9]
• New Brunswick - Service New Brunswick (performs other functions as well)
• Nova Scotia - Access Nova Scotia
• Ontario - Ministry of Transportation (Ontario) (MTO)
• Québec - Société de l'Assurance Automobile du Québec (SAAQ)
• Saskatchewan - Saskatchwean Auto Fund, a division of Saskatchewan Government Insurance^[10]

• Czech Republic - Odbor dopravy Obecního úřadu obce s rozšířenou působností příslušný podle místa pobytu žadatele
• Germany - Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), Straßenverkehrsbehörde (handles driver's license applications/vehicle registration, part of the city or county government), TÜV (old Bundesländer)/DEKRA (new Bundesländer) (handle both theoretical and practical driver's license testing, issue DLs)
• Iran - Ministry Of Roads And Transportation
• Italy - Motorizzazione Civile
• New Zealand - Land Transport New Zealand^[11]
• Norway - Statens vegvesen
• Portugal - Direcção Geral de Viação (now extinct and its functions split amongst other agencies)
• Philippines - Land Transportation Office
• Sweden – Swedish National Road Administration (Swedish: Vägverket)
• Spain - Dirección General de Tráfico
• United Kingdom – Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

• Northern Ireland - Driver & Vehicle Agency

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
• German Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, with information in English