In Missouri, drivers licenses and vehicle registration/titling/etc, is handled by the Department of Revenue. The processing of licenses and such is done at a License Office. AIUI, the operation of License Offices is contracted out to private businesses. The State decides they need a License Office in Podunk, and they open bidding to private parties who want to operate it.
Arkansas…The Revenue office
Pennsylvania actually varies depending on what government pamphlet or website you are reading but it seems to be PennDOT DMV. Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Division of Motor Vehicles.
In Ohio, it’s the BMV. Bureau instead of division or department.
In Ohio, the BMV does plates and licenses, but titles are handled by the county title office, which is a division of the county clerk of courts. (The title office is often located in the same building as the BMV, along with a Highway Patrol office for people who need to taking written or driving tests, but it’s a separate room and separate wait if your task requires both.)
Here in Alberta, it’s “the Registry.”
Registries are private enterprises that take care of a lot of provincial government services. I can renew my driver’s license, get new license plates (and new stickers), and register a new car through a Registry–all typical DMV functions–but among other things, I can also pull my land title, check the personal property registry (PPR), and do a corporate name search through them. The latter are not typical everyday consumer functions, but it’s nice to have them available to the public, in a “one-stop-shop” place.
At any rate, in the province of Alberta, it’s not the DMV, it’s the Registry.
Looking into it more deeply, it turns out that the agency that actually issues licenses is the Bureau of Credentialing Services, which falls within the Division of Motorist Services (which falls within the DHSMV).
That’s the place to get/renew your driver’s license or and state ID and to obtain a driving history report. To obtain/renew a tag for your vehicle or register the title we trudge the local county tag office. These offices are run and staffed by the county tax commissioner. Confusingly enough, you can still hear either being referred to as the “DMV”.
To the amusing confusion of out-of-towners, the provincial liquor commissioner is called the SAQ, la Société des alcools du Québec.
In Quebec “Societe de l’Assurance Automobile”, which I will translate as Automobile Insurance Agency. The reason is that they took over all personal liability insurance. Property damage and collision is your own responsibility although the former is required. So driver’s licences and tags cost hundreds of dollars.
We have SNB - Service New Brunswick. In addition to the regular Motor Vehicle functions (licensing, testing, registration) they also take care of Medicare Cards, sewage installation, lien checks, community college enrollment, fishing/hunting licenses, and a host of other services that fall under the perview of the Provincial Government.
It took some time to get used to the idea that the DMV here in Maryland (as has been noted) is the MVA, but some people refer to the DC-Maryland-Virginia region as “the DMV.”
:smack:
Our Division of Motor Vehicles is under the Department of Revenue.
Here in South Dakota, the titling and registration is done at the county treasurer’s office. Driver’s licenses are done at a separate office run by the state in the larger cities. The smaller counties will do driver’s licensing at the courthouse a couple times a month as it’s done by the state and they have to send people out.
Hey, great opportunity to toss in one of those well-liked German compound words: Straßenverkehrsamt. Means “office of street traffic”, but we can say that in one word ;). Every local community has one.