AAMVA, ANSI and National Standards
AAMVA’s interest in standards has always been for the benefit of its motor vehicle community membership. AAMVA has served as an administrator and coordinator of voluntary standardization for over 20 years. For an update on related activities see Current and Developing Standards.
By promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards, AAMVA has sought to enable members to communicate and exchange information . In recent years these efforts have been coordinated through AAMVA's Information Technology, Driver License & Control and Vehicle Safety Inspection disciplines.
AAMVA develops American National Standards (ANSs), e.g. ANSI D20; and facilitates development of ANSs by establishing consensus among qualified groups, as seen through the B10.8 effort for the driver’s license/identification card (B10.8 DL/ID Draft). ANSI guiding principles, consensus, due process and openness are followed, as well as other administrative related components, which AAMVA has directly adopted from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
International Standards
AAMVA actively supports ANSI in its promotion of U.S. standards internationally. ANSI is the sole U.S. representative and dues-paying member of the two major non-treaty international standards organizations:
A founding member of ISO, ANSI plays an active role in its governance. ANSI is one of five permanent members to the governing ISO Council, and one of four permanent members of ISO’s Technical Management Board.
Through ANSI, the United States has immediate access to the ISO and IEC standards development processes. ANSI participates in almost the entire technical program of both the ISO (78% of all ISO technical committees) and the IEC (91% of all IEC technical committees) and administers many key committees and subgroups (16% in the ISO; 17% in the IEC). As part of its responsibilities as the U.S. member body to the ISO and the IEC, ANSI accredits U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (U.S. TAGs), or USNC Technical Advisors (TAs). The U.S. TAG’s (or TA’s) primary purpose is to develop and transmit, via ANSI, U.S. positions on activities and ballots of the international technical committee.
In many instances, U.S. standards are taken forward, through ANSI or its USNC, to the ISO or IEC where they are adopted in whole or in part as international standards. Since the work of international technical committees is carried out by volunteers from industry and government, the success of these efforts often is dependent upon the willingness of U.S. industry and the U.S. government to commit the resources required to ensure strong U.S. technical participation in the international standards process.
It is in the best interest of both AAMVA and the United States to continue to provide worldwide leadership in the development of driver licensing systems and standards. If the United States wishes to maintain its leadership position in the design of driver licensing systems and standards, they need to participate in the rapid expansion of DL/ID standards for both driver and non-driver license jurisdictional applications (multi-function cards).
Without AAMVA's active participation in this development process, there is a risk that other geographical blocks could drive the standard in a direction incompatible with U.S. interests. As such, AAMVA supported a new work item through SC 17, that has an eye on an international standard. The Working Group was designated as WG10 and held its first meeting in July 1999. WG10 has since made significant progress with developing an ISO standard for the DL. This is in keeping with AAMVA’s past practices supporting the use of national and international standards as guidelines to its members.
Contact: Rich Carter, Vice President, Identification Technology and Standards, (703) 522-4200.