California drivers can now check their driving record or their vehicle registration with a little typing and clicking – and without taking a number at the DMV office.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has launched a $14 million online portal meant to spare more people from a trip to one of its offices. The site is a one-stop shop for getting records, renewing licenses, paying tickets – or making an appointment if you do have to make that trip to the DMV.
"There are a lot of folks that are still going into field offices when they really don't have to," DMV spokeswoman Jan Mendoza said. "We try to think of as many things (as possible) that we can do online."
The DMV quietly launched the site in late July but didn't announce it until Thursday. The site already has more than 800,000 registered users, Mendoza said.
It was designed to work much like a personal-banking site, she said. Users create their own account tied to their driver's license number and then can access their own DMV information.
Most of the site's services have been available online before, but the new site collects them in one place. What's new is the ability to look up driving records, with any violations and accident information; and registration records, with basic vehicle information.
Each record costs $2. The site has security blocks to prevent users from accessing any vehicle or driving record other than their own.
IBM created the site under a $14 million contract, Mendoza said. The DMV is looking at other features it could add, but Mendoza said she couldn't say what those would be.
And, she said, drivers will still have to make the occasional trip to a DMV office, regardless of what features are available online. For one thing, there's still that behind-the-wheel driving test.
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