DMV Driving Record: Uses & Applications

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DMV Driving Record: Uses & Applications

A DMV driving record can be used to locate a person. DMV records are not only highly accessible, but capable of tracking a person through name changes and relocations across America. You can also use a car registration to find the last known address.

A DMV driving record has many uses. Aside from the obvious applications by car insurers and rental companies, authorities also use it in qualifying you to cross the border into Canada, for instance. If you are involved in a court case that involves custody of a child, your DMV driving record can also come into play.

Using a DMV Driving Record to Find a Person

But one application that may be more common than you think is using driving records to locate missing or estranged persons. As long as the person still lives in the US, their driver’s license and car registration data can lead you to them.

Each state has its own Department of Motor Vehicles, although some are referred to as Transport Divisions and Offices. If the individual you are trying to locate is of driving age, then the state DMV is a logical place to begin your search.

For an American over age 16, a driving license is probably one of the more important IDs to carry. Authorities and retailers (e.g., police, bank officers, liquor store owners, etc.) requiring an ID will probably ask to see a driver’s license first.

Although some states have restricted access to driver’s license data, most make enough info readily available for a fee. With only two bits of info (name, birth date) you will able to begin a search. A birth date is especially important if the given name is common.

Using a name and birth date, the state DMV should be able to produce a current address along with confirmatory data, like:

When private investigators say they skip trace a person, this means they use this kind of info to track down a person through several locations. What makes it easy to perform such a search is that DMVs keep driving records from as far back as 30 years.

What’s more, DMVs keep old licenses with a woman’s maiden name, so you can still find a person whose name has changed with marriage. DMV files even show to which state an individual’s license was surrendered.

When you get a person’s DMV driving record and find that the address is not current, call the DMV and check for car registration, which is renewed yearly. Since there are states that allow as long as 8 years before driving license renewals, a car registration is your best bet to get a current address.

Useful DMV Driving Record Links:

All 50 states have their own DMV websites. Some examples of these found by typing in the name of the state followed by “DMV” in a popular search engine are:

To find out more about how you can locate persons via DMV driving records, visit RecordsSiteReviews now and browse the Driving Records pages.