Driver License

Synonym: Operator License.

A license issued by a Jurisdiction to an individual to operate a motor vehicle. This includes all licenses issued, not just those that are current. A Jurisdiction may also record "Dummy" license records to track unlicensed drivers and out-of-state offenders.

Many MVAs are responsible for issuing both Driver Licenses and ID Cards. Many of the following elements are described as Driver License elements, but they could also be used to hold ID Card data. In some MVAs, this data is referred to as Customer data.

A license may be a base license or a commercial license and have additional privileges authorized by the Class or Endorsement.

Usage Note: AAMVA applications require MVAs to be able to exchange Driver History Records (DHR). Many of the elements described in this section are part of the DHR. See the description of the Driver Control Record for details.

A license or an ID is usually identified by its Number. A number of states allow a person to hold both a license and an ID. In a few of these states, the same customer number is used on both credentials. For these cases the Number and Document Type are needed to uniquely identify the credential.