From a Swansea tower that holds the records of some 42 million licence holders to California's pink slip, here is who registers cars and licenses drivers, and why it varies so much.
Motor vehicle departments register cars and license drivers: US states and Canadian provinces run them, while unitary countries use national bodies. Britain's DVLA works from Swansea, California's DMV took its modern form in 1931, and registration rules differ widely abroad.
One office in Swansea holds the licence records of some 42 million people, and anyone with a plausible reason can ask it about a vehicle for 2.50 pounds. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is Britain's answer to the American DMV, and the two systems differ in revealing ways.
What does a department of motor vehicles do?
A department of motor vehicles registers vehicles and licenses drivers. In federal countries such as the United States and Canada, subnational governments run it, while many European states organise it nationally.
In the United States all states but one handle both jobs at state level, and Hawaii has handed them to its county governments. In Canada the provinces do the work. The Uniform Vehicle Code's preferred name is Department of Motor Vehicles, and DMV is the usual shorthand, but the labels vary: Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Indiana and Ohio, Motor Vehicle Administration in Maryland, Motor Vehicle Division in Arizona, Department of Licensing in Washington and Registry of Motor Vehicles in Massachusetts. Maine, Michigan and Illinois give the job to the Secretary of State.
Where the DMV sits inside government changes from state to state. Some states give it a department of its own. Others tuck it into the Department of Justice (Montana), Public Safety (Texas and Ohio), Revenue (Missouri, Kansas and Colorado) or Transportation (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Oregon, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware and Arizona). Vermont makes it a subunit of its Agency of Transportation. In Kentucky the Transportation Cabinet sets policy, but county clerks register vehicles and Circuit Court clerks license drivers, and Tennessee likewise leaves day-to-day work to county clerks. The District of Columbia sits outside any state and runs its DMV through the city government.
A licence became a national identity document in a country that never issued one, and the DMV became the office that decides who you are.
Who must register with a state DMV?
Long-term residents of a state, meaning those staying beyond 30 days, who wish to drive need a licence from the state DMV, and their vehicles must carry its plates and current registration tags.
There are exceptions. Active-duty service members do not change their legal residence just by moving to a new posting, so they may keep the licence and registration of their home state or take out new ones locally. Some states let out-of-state students keep theirs. Vehicles that the federal government owns or leases are registered by its General Services Administration, which has plates marked U.S. Government made by Federal Prison Industries, although federal employees who drive them still need a state licence. Diplomats are covered by a separate programme at the Office of Foreign Missions, which issues their licences, registers their vehicles and provides special plates.
What else do DMVs handle besides licences and plates?
Quite a lot. Besides licensing and registration, they certify ownership through vehicle titles, record liens, issue identity cards and often enforce motor vehicle law.
Where no national identity card exists, the driver's licence has become the de facto ID for many purposes, which has made DMVs the agency that verifies identity, even for people who never drive. The REAL ID Act of 2005 was an attempt to set a national standard. DMVs also give the written and practical tests, and in some states regulate private driving schools and instructors. Every DMV issues a state driver's manual, and knowledge of it is tested before a permit or licence is granted.
On the vehicle side, the DMV supplies each vehicle's identification, either a permanent plate or a temporary tag, and keeps detailed records such as odometer history to deter fraud. Many let third parties help: tag agents, who have direct access to DMV systems in Louisiana, and dealers, who often use electronic registration. Titles prove ownership, and because the DMV issues them it also records liens when a car secures a loan. Boats, mobile homes and off-road vehicles may be titled by other bodies, such as a Department of Natural Resources.
Enforcement powers can surprise people. In North Carolina, DMV inspectors are sworn officers who track down stolen vehicles and investigate fraud, and an inspection station that passes a car with windows tinted below the legal limit faces a $1,000 fine and, for a first offence, a 30-day permit revocation. New York's Division of Field Investigations employs armed peace officers against auto theft and identity fraud. A DMV can cancel the registration of a person who refuses to speak to its agents, and in many states a driver who refuses a breath test automatically loses their licence for a year, even if the impairment case later falls short at trial.
How did California's DMV take its present shape?
It evolved in stages between 1905 and 1931. A 1905 law told Californians to register each motor vehicle with the Secretary of State, and the department took its modern form with the 1931 act that created the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
In between, a 1913 act gave licensing and registration duties to the Department of Engineering, and the Vehicle Act of 1915 created a Motor Vehicle Department headed by a superintendent. A 1917 law let the superintendent appoint field deputies with peace officer powers. In 1921 the work moved into a Division of Motor Vehicles inside the new Department of Finance, then into Public Works in 1929, the year the traffic officers were collectively designated the California Highway Patrol. The 1931 department started with a Division of Registration and a Division of Enforcement, the latter also known as the Highway Patrol.
Some milestones followed. The Vehicle License Fee began in 1936 in place of the property tax cities and counties had levied on vehicles, which is why it is nicknamed the in lieu tax. In January 1991 California introduced the nation's first modern credit-card style licences, with digitised photographs, colour holograms and magnetic strips.
The scale is large. In December 2017 the DMV employed more than 8,900 people, 35 percent at headquarters in Sacramento and 65 percent in 172 field offices. Its records covered 30,112,927 persons, 33,993,857 licences and identification cards, and 35,391,347 vehicles, with 26,957,875 licensed drivers. About 200 armed sworn investigators deal with vehicle theft, chop shops, counterfeit documents, identity theft, and fraud involving identification numbers and odometers. The DMV also licenses the testing and deployment of self-driving vehicles: Nuro was first without a safety driver on 23 December 2020, and Cruise and Waymo followed on 30 September 2021.
What is the DVLA and what does it do?
The DVLA is the British government body that keeps the driver database for Great Britain and the vehicle database for the whole United Kingdom. It hands out driving licences, arranges the collection of vehicle excise duty and sells personalised registrations.
The DVLA began in 1965 as part of the Ministry of Transport and now answers to the Department for Transport as an executive agency, led by chief executive Tim Moss. It sits in Swansea, in a 16-storey building at Clase and offices at Swansea Vale. Customers once used a network of 39 local offices, but all were closed during 2013, so most business is done by post, phone or online. Electronic Vehicle Licensing arrived in 2004, letting customers pay road tax online or by telephone, and the Post Office still processes tax applications under a seven-year contract agreed in November 2012.
How was the DVLA built?
Registration used to belong to County Borough and County councils under the Motor Car Act 1903. A centralised licensing centre opened in Swansea in 1968, and a purpose-built centre rose on the former Clase Farm site in 1969.
Computers made it work. A contract of around 10 million pounds went to ICL in April 1969, with no American firms allowed to bid, and the system started on 1 March 1973. Within 10 days it completed 98 percent of licence requests, and new licences came on a green sheet in place of the old red book. Vehicle records arrived over time, with registrations from 1 October 1974 appearing first, then letter series phased in through 1977. By August 1977 the centre had 5,300 staff and was issuing around 900,000 new or amended licences each month. In April 1990 it took the name Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
EDS built the current vehicle register under a contract worth 5 million pounds, signed in 1996. It was planned for October 1998 and arrived a year late. It uses the vehicle identification number, not the plate, as its primary key, so one vehicle cannot hold several registrations. Other bodies lean on it: it identifies untaxed vehicles, and matches cars to keepers for congestion charges and speed camera offences. A Vehicle Identity Check, meant to stop criminals giving stolen cars the identity of written-off ones, was abandoned in October 2015. Commercial vehicle-check companies use its records for buyers, and anyone with just cause can request data for 2.50 pounds, although the accuracy of what is held remains a continuing problem.
Where has the DVLA drawn criticism?
It has had a long list of complaints. Many concern data: in 2010 it emerged that the agency had sold drivers' details at 2.50 pounds a record to private parking firms, one of which had earlier been fined for unfair practices.
On 13 June 2022 the Information Commissioner said the DVLA had been releasing keeper details to parking companies on the wrong legal ground. The DVLA had used legal duty, whereas public task was the proper basis, which would have given individuals a right to object. In December 2012 the DVLA revealed that it had put temporary bans on 294 public bodies, among them councils and police forces, for misusing access between 2006 and 2012, and permanently banned 38 more.
Other lapses involved paperwork. In 2006 between 120,000 and 130,000 vehicle registration certificates went missing, and a 2010 BBC investigation found 13 million pounds' worth of vehicles stolen with their help. In 2015/16 the agency handled 12,775 complaints and failed to resolve 14.9 percent of them at first contact. On 17 March 2023 a Public Accounts Committee report criticised long delays, noting that three million paper applications involving fitness to drive had piled up.
The licence number itself caused controversy. When the centralised licence arrived in 1973, objectors disliked giving a date of birth to the agency. The 16-character number includes the date of birth in characters 10 to 16, in the format YDDMMY, with 50 added to the month for women: a man born on 17 October 1968 shows as 617108, and a woman with the same birthday as 617608. In 1977 the regulations changed so that the date was simply printed in its own field.
Who registers cars and licenses drivers in different countries?
| Place | Agency | Note |
|---|---|---|
| California | Department of Motor Vehicles | Registers vehicles and boats, issues licences and ID cards |
| England, Scotland and Wales | Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency | Also the vehicle register for the whole UK |
| Northern Ireland | Driver and Vehicle Agency | Counterpart for drivers |
| Victoria and New South Wales | VicRoads and Transport for NSW | Each Australian state and territory has its own authority |
| Germany | Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt plus local road traffic authorities | TUV and DEKRA run the compulsory two-yearly check |
| France | Agence nationale des titres securises | National body |
| Sweden | Transportstyrelsen | Swedish Transport Agency |
| Switzerland | Cantonal motoring offices | No federal motor vehicle office |
| Brazil | DENATRAN and state DETRANs | The national body coordinates; each state handles actual registration and licences |
| Mexico | State traffic secretariats | Run by the states, not the federal government |
How does motor vehicle registration work?
Registration ties a vehicle to an owner or user with a government authority. Almost every vehicle has a unique identification number, but only registered ones display a plate and carry a certificate, and registration differs from licensing and from roadworthiness certification.
In Australia, every vehicle must be registered before it goes on public roads, through the authority of the state or territory. Registration is renewed each year for a fee, and a compulsory third-party insurance policy is needed to renew, with inspections for older or commercial vehicles. Certificates list the registered owner plus the make, model, year and VIN, with chassis and engine numbers, weights, engine capacity and passenger numbers. The certificate often serves as proof of ownership, though technically it is not, because ownership is governed by common law.
American registration also renews annually with a fee, and in most states a liability insurance policy meeting state requirements must be bought before a vehicle can be registered. Machines kept off public roads, tractors for instance or vehicles confined to private land, need not always be registered. In California dealerships register the vehicles they sell, and until 2006 registration clerks tracked each deal on paper calendars and logbooks, an inefficiency that cost dealerships millions of dollars in fines. The Business Partner Automation programme let them file electronically. Most California registrations come through private sales handled at DMV branches or by independent Registration Service Providers, and a typical fine of $178 follows if a person who moves does not tell the DMV within 10 days.
California ownership is evidenced by a certificate of title, known as the pink slip after the colour of the paper until a 1988 change. The original, or a replacement from the DMV, is needed to transfer ownership. Pink was chosen to catch owners' eyes and stop the slip being binned with other paperwork, and 1950s films about illegal street races for the loser's car, known as racing for pinks, spread the phrase across the country.
Europe asks different questions. Cars registered in an EU country must show compliance with national rules and EU directives on matters such as seat belts and impact protection, and kit cars supplied as bare chassis with unguarded wheels fail the safety criteria. The United Kingdom has a four-track type approval system. Volume makers use European Community Whole Vehicle Approval, small series up to 1,000 passenger cars a year use a small-series approval, Single Vehicle Approval covers things like ambulances and hearses, and Individual Vehicle Approval covers kit cars and home-built vehicles.
India registers vehicles through state Regional Transport Offices. Commercial vehicles registered in one state need a permit to enter another, and passenger vehicles may pass through but cannot stay beyond a fixed number of months without paying road tax. In Pakistan, an SMS verification service launched in 2013 by the Excise Department in Punjab, and separately in Islamabad, is the most popular of three processes. Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa verify vehicles online through the Motor Transport Information Management System, and Islamabad also offers doorstep verification.
What should a buyer or new resident keep in mind?
Titles and records carry weight. In the United States, ownership is certified by the title, and liens made against a vehicle as security for a loan are normally recorded by the DMV, so the record shows whether money is still owed.
A new resident of a state has a clock running: more than 30 days of residence generally means a local licence and plates. In Britain, commercial check companies draw on the DVLA's records to give buyers an individual car check, though the agency itself says the accuracy of the data is a continuing problem.
Where this goes next
Several changes are under way or proposed. California's Governor Gavin Newsom released a report in July 2019 from a DMV Reinvention Strike Team that recommended improvements to transparency, worker training, speed of service and customer satisfaction, and he appointed Steve Gordon as director.
In India, a government move may centralise vehicle registration to curb corruption at regional offices and make one registration valid in every state, although so far it is only a possible move. In Australia, a growing share of registration functions can be done online.
