Recently, I needed to get my motorcycle license endorsement in Florida. \u00a0In the process, I learned some things about how states are handling driver’s licenses and records which are worth passing on.<\/p>\n
The state of Florida changed its laws in 2010 to require a beginner’s motorcycle safety course for anyone who wants to have a motorcycle driver’s license or endorsement. It is a very basic course for beginners who have virtually zero experience with a motorcycle. \u00a0The course is 14-hours and costs around $250 to take–and its a worthwhile course to take, only if you are a beginner.<\/p>\n
I’ve had this basic motorcycle safety course in the Air Force while stationed in Texas. \u00a0I’ve had motorcycle licenses in California and with US Army Europe (while in the Air Force). Fortunately, Florida has a reciprocation clause in its law which lists the states, territories and other organizations for which it honors previous motorcycle licenses. \u00a0This is the “grand father” clause in the law which allows previous or existing licensed motorcycle riders to bypass the course. \u00a0Both California and US Army Europe are on the list.<\/p>\n
When the Motor Vehicle office checked my records in the common database, no record of either license\u00a0was found. Since both California and US Army Europe issued my licenses just before the national database was beginning to be populated, I needed to write to each organization directly to get a copy of my driving records.<\/p>\n
US Army Europe had the records, which were available for a document processing fee. \u00a0Interestingly, I had first called California to ask if they had the records, and was informed that the California DMV now destroys all driving records and licenses after 10 years. \u00a0Whether that time frame is 10 years after expiration, or 10 years after last issue, I can not say since I didn’t ask. \u00a0I was just a little surprised that, in an era where electronic storage is available, \u00a0such a short time of availability would be imposed.<\/p>\n
Because of this experience, I have a recommendation. \u00a0If you move to another state, and have your driver’s license reissued in the new state, order a copy of your driving records from the state you left and store them in your personal files. \u00a0This appears to be very important for motorcycle riders.<\/p>\n
You never know if you will need them, after the state no longer wants to keep them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, I needed to get my motorcycle license endorsement in Florida. \u00a0In the process, I learned some things about how states are handling driver’s licenses and records which are worth passing on. The state of Florida changed its laws in 2010 to require a beginner’s motorcycle safety course for anyone who wants to have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-public-policy","category-just-on-my-mind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}