When you live in the United States, there’s a good chance that your name is going to appear on a lot of lists and that you’ll have a lot of records associated with that name. It’s actually pretty normal because the government keeps track of pretty much everything. From birth to death, you collect an impressive number of documents, cards, and records. If you need to find your driving record online, you can usually do so with some level of ease. There are a lot of ways to go about it, but today we’re going to tell you the two best ways that you can access your driving record, as well as a way that you could even access someone else’s driving record.
Why Would Anyone Want to Access Driving Records?
If you’re not used to needing to locate records, you may be a little confused as to why someone would bother getting information like someone’s driving records. There are any number of reasons. If you’re getting your own driving records, it’s probably for some sort of official business. Many places will require a driving record before they’ll allow you to drive for them, especially if you’re going to be driving children around. Having this record handy will allow people to know that you’re a trustworthy driver and that you should be allowed to drive their passengers or goods.
Sometimes driving records are handy for things like getting car insurance, so the insurance company will know that you aren’t a dangerous driver. As you’re probably aware, having a lot of accidents can increase the cost of your insurance, so providing your official driving record and proving that you’re a safe driver may just help you get a lower insurance rate.
Sometimes private citizens even access driving records. This is usually for the same reasons why anyone else accesses driving records, to make sure that everything is on the up and up. This is especially common with parents who want to make sure that someone is a safe enough driver to drive their children to school or other places.
Most people just want to make sure that the people they love, and themselves, aren’t getting in the car with a maniac that regularly drives recklessly. Your driving record contains a lot of that information, so accessing it can quickly help someone determine how safe it would be to trust their loved ones with you.
It makes sense if you think about it. Cars are the most dangerous mode of transportation on earth, statistically at least. You’re more likely to get hurt in a car crash than for a plane to crash, and considering many people are aware of that; they feel like they can’t be too safe about who they trust their loved ones with.
What is on a Driving Record?
Driving records contain a good deal of information. It’s really just about what it sounds like, a record of your driving and everything that has to do with your driving. Depending on your source, the actual information contained in your record can vary a bit, but you can usually find things like:
- License status: If the person in question’s license is valid or not.
- Number of Accidents: In most cases, you won’t be able to see who’s fault the accident was, but you can see how many accidents someone has been in.
- Moving violations: Moving violations are a type of driving infraction where the strike is against the driver. This includes things like speeding, running a red light, and stop signs.
- DUIs or DWIs: Driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence is illegal in all fifty states, but what the actual charge is called depends on what state you’re in and what substance the driver was on. Some states only have DUIs, and some have both DUIs and DWIs.
- Parking tickets: Surprisingly, you can even see how many parking tickets someone has from their driving record.
Sometimes you can find even more information on someone’s driving record; it really depends on the source of your information. Some sources are more detailed than others, but you can usually, at the very least, get enough information to know if the person in question is a safe driver.
How to Get Your Own Driving Records
If you’ve been requested to get your driving record, but you don’t know where to start, don’t worry. It’s actually the easiest if you’re looking to get it for yourself. Each state regulates its own DMV, or Department of Motor Vehicles, and that means that the exact process can look a little different from state to state. Most states have a very similar process, but make sure to check with your state’s DMV to ensure you’re doing it right.
If you want to get your driving records online, the first thing you’ll need to do is go to your state’s DMV website. On that website, you should be able to find the form you need to fill out to get your driving record. Fill out that form and submit it. Most states require a small fee for processing, but that’s usually only about five dollars.
Once you’ve paid your fee and filled out the form, most states will allow you instant access to your driving record online through a .PDF file. You can print out this file or even email it if you want to. Once the file has been given to you, you’re free to do whatever you want to with it.
It’s the easiest to get your own driving record this way. The DMV doesn’t care why you want your own driving record, and they’ll provide it to you without any fuss. If you’re trying to get someone else’s driving record, it may be a little more tricky, but we can still walk you through it.
How to Get Someone Else’s Driving Record
If you want to get someone else’s driving record, you may have run into some issues pretty early on. It’s still an entirely doable task, but that doesn’t mean that getting someone else’s driving record is a walk in the park, especially if you aren’t looking in the right place.
The first place most people would look would also be the DMV’s website. This works well when you’re looking into your own record, but it’s a much more involved process when you’re looking into someone else’s record. Firstly, you’ll need to fill out paper forms and mail them to the DMV because they only correspond via snail mail for these kinds of requests.
You’ll need to send in the fee required for this transaction, and it’s a little more expensive for third parties. Instead of the five dollars you would need for checking on your own driving record, there is a ten-dollar fee in most states. Once you’ve sent in your request, you have to wait until the DMV reviews it and responds. The DMV can reject you if your reason isn’t one of their sanctioned reasons, and if they do, you won’t get your money back.
That method can work if you happen to have a reason approved of by the DMV and proof of it, but otherwise, it’s just a dead end. There is another way to get ahold of someone’s driving record, and if you want to get the information fast, it may be your best bet. All you need to do is find a good personal background check service and find the information through them.
Personal background check services pull records from public databases all over the country, so when you search through them, you’re getting a lot of information from a lot of different places all at once. You can usually expect to get your search results instantly, and all of the information that it finds will be located on a single easy to read page. Most people say that they regularly find a whole lot more information than just driving records when they search using a personal background check service. It’s not uncommon to find all sorts of things ranging from criminal records to email addresses this way.
Don’t Let Getting Your Driving Records be a Headache
There are so many things that we already have to worry about on a day-to-day basis. Getting to work on time, your actual responsibilities at work, interpersonal relationships, the list goes on. Getting ahold of your driving record shouldn’t be another thing you need to stress about, and it’s never been easier to get that information than now. No matter the reason you need it, you can always get your driving record one way or another in a very little amount of time.
***SpyFly provides consumers affordable, immediate access to public record information. Federal laws prohibit businesses from using SpyFly’s service to make decisions about employment, insurance, consumer credit, tenant screening, or for any other purpose subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq.**