[aprssig] Driving Safely

[Fred Atkinson, WB4AEJ]

    Maryland gives a change of address card when you move (rather than
charge you to print another license).  That's fine for in state because all
of the Maryland police agencies know about it and so do the merchants.

    But it plays hell when you are out of state.  Very few officers from
other states know about it and they are quizzical as hell when you explain
it to them.

    Merchants are even worse (when you try to cash a check, for example).
They don't believe you when you tell them that the change of address card
shows your current address.  Most of them take the old address because they
think you are trying to put one over on them.

    So, I wouldn't accept them giving me a change of address card when I was
living there.  I'd go back to DMV and pay the fee to have a new license
printed.  It eliminated problems like that.

    This is the problem when one state decides to do things differently from
everyone else.

    Maryland is also different in the area of an automobile title.  They
give the title to the owner of the vehicle (even if the bank holds a lien on
it) and give the bank a separate document called a 'notice of secured filed
interest' (if I remember that phrase exactly right) to show they have a lien
on your car.  Your title reflects that, too.

    None of the other states understand it and you can tell it when you take
your title to another DMV (Virginia, for example) to transfer it out of
Maryland.  The other DMVs say that Maryland is a 'dual title' state.  That's
not true.  You only get one title.  The other document is not a title.  It
is something else.

    Virginia is a pain in the neck DMV.  When I transfered my title to
Virginia, I delivered my Maryland title, registration, proof of insurance,
photocopy of my ham radio license (for my ham radio plate), and every other
document they told me I'd need.  The woman took all my documents, issued my
driver's license, my registration, and my plates.  The ham radio plates
showed up in the mail less than a month later and I returned the old plates
to VA DMV.

    I was expecting my title to be sent to my credit union (who held the
lien on my vehicle), but it never came.  Finally, I called DMV and asked
them where my title was.  They told me I had never given them my title.  I
didn't understand how they could make that claim since they'd already given
me my registration.  The receipt they've given me documented a fee for a
title.

    They told me that in Virginia, you can register a car in state *before*
you transfer the title.  And I'd have to bring them the Maryland title
before I would get my Virginia title.  I told them that I gave the woman at
the counter the title but they didn't believe me.  I told them I expected
them to locate that title since I'd given it to the clerk at the DMV.  They
wouldn't get off their butts and try to find it.

    I called the credit union that was holding my title and told them what
happened (as they were expecting the Virginia title to be sent to them).
Suprisingly, they paid for Maryland to issue me a duplicate title (I never
expected them to do that), which I took to the Virginia DMV (a different
location, this time).  They printed the title right there and told me that
they were mailing it to the credit union for me that same day.  I called the
credit union about a week later and they confirmed that they had received
it.

    Virginia is a pain in the neck DMV.

    I could tell you some horror stories about Maryland, too, as I lived
there for nearly a quarter of a century.  But that's for another time.

    Regards,



Fred, WB4AEJ


----- Original Message -----
From: "bob evinger" <wd9eka at evinger.com>
To: "TAPR APRS Mailing List" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2006 10:45 PM
Subject: Re: [aprssig] Driving Safely


> Illinois does the same thing. No points you only have to go in once
> every 8 years. Send a check in on the off 4 years and they send a
> sticker to apply to the back of the license. Really confuses the LEO's
> and a few others that use License for ID though when you are out of state.
>
> bob
>
>
> Chris Rose wrote:
>
> >In Michigan you have to take a written test and eye
> >test @8 years.  The four year license can be renewed
> >once by mail, then you have to go to Secretary of
> >State office to take test and get eyes checked.  This
> >is for folks that don't have any point accumulation I
> >believe.
> >
> >Chris
> >KB8UIH
> >
> >-----------------------
> >
> >
>
>
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