The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) is a
501(c)(3)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
trade association
A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. Through collabor ...
based in
Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...
that operates in the United States and Canada on behalf of motor vehicle licensing and registration agencies. The AAMVA is primarily involved with motor vehicle administration and law enforcement through production of guidelines, model legislation, and
white paper reports which it disseminates to its members. The membership of the organization consists of what the AAMVA calls jurisdictional members, these being US states and Canadian territories; and associate members, which include corporations, nonprofits, local governments, and individual law enforcement agencies.
The association serves as an information clearinghouse for these same disciplines, and acts as the international spokesperson for these interests. The association is composed of motor vehicle and law enforcement administrators and executives from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Canadian territories and provinces. Although Canadian jurisdictions are members of AAMVA, Canada also has a distinctly separate but similar organization, the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA), which more directly establishes governance of driver & vehicle matters for provinces and territories. At least two Mexican states have been AAMVA members at some time. The U.S. Virgin Islands are current members of AAMVA as well as the District of Columbia.
The association is divided into four separate regions, primarily by geography, encompassing all North American members. Each region holds annual meetings with the entire membership meeting once per year. Within the membership are committees and task forces which meet typically on a quarterly basis.
Methodology
As an association representing the state and provincial officials in the United States and Canada who administer and enforce motor vehicle codes, AAMVA facilitates communication and fosters standardization among member jurisdictions concerning traffic safety, titling of motor vehicles, and licensing drivers. AAMVA represents its U.S. and Canadian membership by working collaboratively to support and improve motor vehicle administration, safety, identification security and law enforcement. AAMVA also communicates the consensus views of members to the public, state legislatures, Congress, and other organizations such as the American Trucking Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Governors Organization.
Some of the items found in AAMVA's policy statements include:
#states' participation in the proposed
Driver License Agreement
#passing laws against Radar/Laser Detectors and Jammers
#regulating tinted windows
#states issuing front/back license plates±
The AAMVA also publishes the technical standards for
driver's licenses
A driver's license, driving licence, or driving permit is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, car ...
compliant with the Real ID Act including anti-
counterfeit
A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...
ing measures and
machine-readable
In communications and computing, a machine-readable medium (or computer-readable medium) is a medium capable of storing data in a format easily readable by a digital computer or a sensor.
It contrasts with ''human-readable'' medium and data.
T ...
technologies such as a
PDF417
PDF417 is a stacked linear barcode format used in a variety of applications such as transport, identification cards, and inventory management. "PDF" stands for ''Portable Data File'', while "417" signifies that each pattern in the code consis ...
barcode
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly ref ...
on the reverse side. Many state issued driving permits and ID cards display small digits next to each data field, which is required by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators’ design standard. The newest card design standard released is the 2020 AAMVA DL/ID Card Design Standard (CDS), which supersedes the 2016 standard.
The AAMVA standard generally follows part 1 and part 2 of ISO/IEC 18013-1 (
ISO compliant driving license). The ISO standard in turn specifies requirements for a card that is aligned with the UN Conventions on Road Traffic, namely the
Geneva Convention on Road Traffic
The Convention on Road Traffic, commonly known as the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, is an international treaty promoting the development and safety of international road traffic by establishing certain uniform rules among the contracting pa ...
and the
Vienna Convention on Road Traffic
The Convention on Road Traffic, commonly known as the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, is an international treaty designed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by establishing standard traffic rules among the co ...
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The AAMVA also operates the
Commercial Driver's License Information System , Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS), which is a system that enables jurisdictions to exchange commercial driver information, including out-of-state convictions, in accordance with the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act. AAMVA also supports the Problem Driver Pointer System, which is a system that enables jurisdictions to report serious convictions and withdrawals of drivers to the National Driver Register operated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
AAMVA also oversees the International Registration Plan. They provide staff support to the Joint Executive Board for the
Driver License Compact and
Non-Resident Violator Compact and the
Driver License Agreement.
AAMVA also maintains the
National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) which enables vehicle titling agencies to verify the information on a title with the issuing state's electronic records in order to reduce vehicle theft and fraud. The ''
Anti Car Theft Act of 1992'' specified that the information within NMVTIS be available to federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, insurance carriers, and other prospective purchasers (e.g., individuals, auction companies, and used car dealers). By making this information available across jurisdictions, forms of title fraud such as "title washing" are reduced. Title washing occurs when the condition of a vehicle due to flood, junk, or salvage (known as a "brand"), as previously documented by a state, is lost when the title travels to another state putting an unsuspecting buyer at risk of paying more than a vehicle is worth or operating a vehicle inadequately repaired and potentially unsafe to drive.
History
The organization came into existence in 1933 with the idea of standardizing driver's licensing and traffic laws. In more recent years, AAMVA has pushed very hard for the one driver, one license, one record concept as found in the
Driver License Compact and the newly created
Driver License Agreement, especially since the events of
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
.
Meetings
Each year, the administration holds a meeting somewhere in the U.S., with the state hosting making special license plates for all attendees.
References
External links
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AAMVA BlogAAMVA Podcast
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Road transportation in the United States
Road transport in Canada
Road transportation in Mexico