Javier Marín
I run DMV Roads. I am not a lawyer, I have never worked for a motor vehicle agency, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. What I do is read the rules straight from the agency that writes them and put them back together in the order a driver actually needs them.
Why an outsider built this
I am a software developer based in Spain, and this site started with a problem that had nothing to do with the DMV. I build websites and mobile apps for a living, which means I spend a lot of my time reading documentation written by people who were not thinking about the reader. State motor vehicle rules are the purest example of that I have ever found. The information is public, it is accurate, and it is almost impossible to use.
Take a straightforward question: what do I need to bring to renew my license? The official answer exists. It is spread across a fee schedule, a document checklist that lives on a different page, a REAL ID notice in a sidebar, and a footnote about which renewals require an in-person visit. None of those pages tell you the one thing you want to know, which is whether today's trip is going to work.
Being an outsider is a real limitation and I want to be honest about it. I have not stood in line at a field office in Sacramento. I cannot tell you which window at your local branch moves faster. What I can do is something the situation actually rewards: read the primary source carefully, notice what it does not say, and refuse to publish a number I have not checked.
How I work
Every guide on this site starts at the agency. Not at a competitor's page, not at a forum thread, and not at a summary of a summary. If California says the knowledge test is 36 questions with a pass mark of 30, that comes from the California DMV, and the page you are reading links to the California DMV so you can check me.
That linking is not decoration. Near the bottom of every guide there is an Official sources block, and at the top there is a notice telling you plainly that this site is not your state's agency and pointing you at the one that is. Any information site in this niche that will not tell you when to leave and go to the real agency is a site you should be suspicious of.
Fees and deadlines are the parts I am strictest about, because they are the parts that change and the parts that cost you a morning if they are wrong. Where a figure is likely to move, the guide says so and tells you to confirm it. I would rather send you to verify something than have you drive across town on my say-so.
What this site will never do
- Take your money for a transaction. We do not process renewals, we do not book appointments, and we do not sell forms that your state gives away.
- Ask for your Social Security number, your license number, or your date of birth. There is no reason for a reference site to hold any of that.
- Present itself as a government office. No seals, no shields, no official-sounding department names.
- Accept payment to recommend a driving school, an insurer, or a traffic-school provider over another.
Tell me when I get something wrong
Rules change, agencies redesign their sites, and a fee that was right in March is wrong by September. If you find something on this site that does not match what your state told you, I want to hear about it — especially if you found out the hard way. Corrections go to [email protected] or through the contact page, and the editorial policy explains what happens to a report once it arrives.
DMV Roads is operated by Javier Marín Bernal, Calle Camino de Murcia, 91, 30530 Cieza (Murcia), Spain. The full ownership and legal details are on the terms of service page.