Where do Online Driving Records Come From?

Driving records can seem a little… mysterious. Where exactly does the information come from? It’s information that anyone can access, assuming they know where to look, but it’s not always clear where it comes from exactly. We were also curious about where driving records online came from, so we decided to look into it. Today we’re going to look over our findings. There is a good deal of context that needs to be included, so today’s article is going to be a doozy. Without further ado, let’s get into it so you can be more well-informed on the subject. 

We’re going to be taking a look at what allows citizens to access driving records online, where the information comes from when you do a driving record search on the internet, and how you can do this kind of search for yourself. If we have time, we might even touch on the reasons why someone might look into this kind of search, but we have a lot of information to go over, so we might just have to gloss over that to make sure you leave this article with all of the facts in hand. 

What Exactly is a Driving Record?

Records are kept by every government in the world for all sorts of things. The practice goes all the way back to ancient Egypt, which is known for its meticulous record keeping. Keeping track of what happens in any society is important so that people can review what has happened. Driving records are records that have to do with driving. You can find a good deal of information on a driving record, but the exact information that is kept on a driving record can depend on what state you’re in. 

For the most part, a driving record will contain any tickets the person in question has received, DUIs, and any accidents the person was a part of. Some states include registration status, the type of car that the person in question drives, and insurance status. Unfortunately, unless you’re looking into yourself, the last three items are unlikely to show up on any report that you find, but you can usually find the first three items with relative ease. These records are kept so that the government knows how the person in question drives. It also allows other entities the same information if they have a valid reason to be looking into it. 

Why Can Citizens Find Driving Records? 

As far as why these records are available, it’s actually pretty simple. For years many people worried about what the government was doing because there was a lack of transparency. As time went on, lawmakers decided to pass laws to help reduce this anxiety among the population. The first law of this kind was the Freedom of Information Act or FOIA for short. This law was the first of its kind, and it started the movement for public information to be available to citizens all across the United States. FOIA, in particular, works by sending in requests to get the information that you’re looking for, but that’s not how most public information is gathered these days.

Many laws have been passed since that expand upon public information, and for the most part, information is kept on databases that can be accessed by the public. In fact, most records are kept on databases for simplicity’s sake, but many aren’t available to the public. Driving records are commonly kept on these same kinds of databases and managed on a state-by-state level. The DMV, or Department of Motor Vehicles, is responsible for this information. Each state has its own DMV that is responsible for issuing licenses, registering cars, and keeping track of people’s car insurance. 

In fact, the DMV is where you’d likely start looking if you wanted to find your own driving record on the internet. All you’d need to do is go to their website, fill out a short form, pay the fee of $5 in most states, and hit enter. You’ll instantly have digital access to your driving records and can do whatever you want with them. Finding the records for yourself this way is very quick, but things get tricky really fast if you’re looking into someone else’s records. There are a lot of things in place that the DMV has done to make this process a little more difficult for your everyday driving records searchers. 

If you’re a third party seeking out this information, you’ll need to correspond with the DMV over snail mail. The DMV will only communicate with third parties over snail mail, so you don’t have much of a choice there. You can download and print out the form that’s required and send in the fee, it’s $10 in most states for third parties, then you’ll need to have your request reviewed, and the DMV will send you the records if approved. Most of the time, the DMV will require you to have a valid, official reason in order for them to send back the driving records. This method doesn’t really work for most driving record searchers, but there is another way. 

How to Find Driving Records

There are many reasons why someone might want to access driving records. Maybe they want to let their neighbor drive their kids to school, but they want to make sure that person is a safe enough driver. Maybe they have a hot date with someone they met on the internet, so it’s important to them to make sure that that person doesn’t have a bunch of DUIs. Regardless of your reason, you deserve to access the information you need without much of a headache. We’ve already covered why the DMV might not be a big help for this, but what can you do to get the information that you need?

The absolute easiest way to access someone’s driving records is through a personal background check service. There are hundreds of them online to choose from, and a lot of them are solid and can get you the information you need without much issue. All you need is the first name, last name, and state of the person in question, and you can find exactly the information that you’re looking for. In fact, this is the most popular method for finding this kind of information without having to go through the DMV to get it. You can even be sure that your request won’t be rejected this way.

These services operate by pulling a massive amount of data from thousands of public record databases all over the United States. Once they’ve pulled the data, their system carefully checks for all relevant information for the person in question and then provides it to you on a single page. This method is great because it pulls data from not only the state that you’re in but from all 50 states. That makes this method a lot better for most people because it allows them the information that they’re looking for without needing all of the specifics. 

Let’s say your friend Jonah Jameson has lived all over the United States. He’s been moving around his whole life and has lived in 20 states at this point. You want to find his driving records, but you don’t know every state that he’s lived in. Fortunately, all you need is his name and the state he currently resides in, and you can find his driving records in all of the states that he’s ever lived in. That makes things a lot easier for you and also allows you to get all of the information you want in one fell swoop, without having to ever interact with the DMV or any other government entity along the way. 

Getting the Driving Records You Need

People find driving records every day, just like people drive every day. It can be hard to tell if someone is a good driver just based on the way that they act. Fortunately, you can go off of a lot more than just what you can see by observing, so you can always be sure that you’re leaving yourself and your loved ones in good hands while embarking on the most dangerous form of transportation in the world. Driving records are important to the government, and they can be important to you, too. 

***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.**