# Driving record and employability?  Also CA DMV rant.



## ChanelCinq (Aug 12, 2013)

So I picked up a 10 year driving history at the DMV last week.  It turned out to be a 15 year history.  So in the past 10 years I had a ticket (probably speeding) from 2006 and an accident from 2008.

Add 5 more years to that and I had 1 additional ticket and 3 additional accidents for a total of 2 tickets and 4 accidents.

The woman at the DMV said, oh that stuff should not be there.  You should call Sacramento and have it removed.  So I proceeded to call Sacramento and was disconnected over a dozen times, after holding for over 10 minutes, each time, from a LANDLINE phone.  I swear the CA DMV is worse then the developing world.  And I have lived in Malawi and spent a lot of time in developing countries.

Anyway after a couple days of this nonsense I finally got through to someone.  She said if you do not ask for any driving history to be removed then the DMV keeps all your history and you cannot get just a 10 year report.  You have to call them (if you can get through) and they have to remove it and it takes 6 weeks for the information to be removed.

Since I know how efficient the DMV is I will assume that I need to multiply 6 weeks times 3 and that will be the time that my record will be updated.  So now we are talking 18 weeks or 4 and 1/2 months.  Or they may never update it no matter how many times I call which is much more likely.

Anyhow, I don't want to wait 4.5 months or even 6 weeks to look for a job.  I need to find a job now and hence why I was so diligent at completing everything for my program in advance and taking the NREMT the day of our graduation.

So I have 2 questions.  How damaging will it be to have 2 tickets and 4 accidents in 15 years?  And if they do remove it is one accident and one ticket OK for a 10 year history?  It does not sound bad but I don't know if they want squeeky clean records.

Yeah I should probably wait the 6 weeks until the other 4 things fall off but what if they never do?  So I feel like I should just start applying (after I get my card and apply for county).

Does anyone have any clue how to get this stuff off faster or is there any way to order a true 10 year record?

I am so damn frustrated with the DMV.  I found out from another thread that they were supposed to stamp my medical card and my pink temp Ambulance DL and they didn't.  I am going in tomorrow AM first thing to fix this and this will be my 5th time to the DMV for my Ambulance DL.  

My DMV trips:

Trip 1: Pick up forms and buy 5 USD Ambulance book
Total time at DMV = 3.5 hours

Trip 2: Was given the medical form on trip 1 that I could have downloaded online but not the green card that was supposed to be attached to it and you CANNOT download the green medical card from online
Total time at DMV = 1.0 hour

Trip 3: Getting the Ambulance cert, taking the test, all the other hoops they made me go through.  I had to prove I wasn't blind because although the optometrist put my vision as 20/30 in right eye and 20/30 in left eye and field of vision in right eye is 170 and feild of vision in left eye is 170 the optometrist did not check the box if I was blind in one eye or not.  Are they joking.  Look at what the doctor wrote for vision.  Then she told me I had to have an EMT cert and I showed her on my iPad from the dmv.ca.gov site that was not a requirement.  I also told her I answered the test question on that correctly and could she kindly check my test in front of her.  But she still said I was wrong and she needed to call Sacramento, etc.
Total time at DMV = 6 hours

Trip 4: Signing one of the forms they forgot to have me sign the previous day that said sign only in the presence of a DMV agent or something like that.
Total time at DMV = 45 minutes

Total time at DMV for Ambulance DL up to this point = 11.25 hours and 4 trips.  Let me make it clear that the initial wait time on most visits was under a 1/2 hour and I didn't make appts because when I tried to make appts in July the soonest was in Sept so I ruled out appts at that time as I did not want to wait 6 weeks.  And the waiting is not my issue.  My issue is that they are completely inept.  Our tax dollars are paying them to be incompetent.  In fact the more mistakes they make the more this is costing.  Are these employees evaluated in any way?!?!

Tomorrow will be trip number 5 and let's see how much time I spend there.  Complete joke!  I lived in Puerto Rico and everything is on island time and getting things done takes forever yet the DTOP ( Puerto Rico DMV) is 1,000 times more efficient then the DMV in San Mateo, CA.  It may not be all DMVs in the state but San Mateo is a joke.  I truly cannot believe how incompetent these people are.

So while I am there tomorrow is their anything else I should know or do?  I don't even know what mistakes they are making until I read about them here.  Like not stamping my pink ambulance DL or the green medical card.  I am fully intending that my paperwork for my ambulance DL never arrives in Sacramento.  I am fully expecting this.  Luckily I know a lot of people that work off of temp ambulance certs because it seems that many of them are never mailed.  I do need to get this stuff stamped though.

OK sorry for the rant and change of directions.  Argh! 

I would appreciate it if someone could answer my questions.


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## ChanelCinq (Aug 12, 2013)

Moderators can you please move this to EMS Lounge?  This does not really have anything do to with employment except for the fact that you need a driving history and an ambulance DL for a job.  I think it would get more visibility and it is just as appropriate a place.  Thanks.


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## DesertMedic66 (Aug 12, 2013)

Each employer is different. My employer will only allow 3 points on our record at a single time. My H-6 printout was a 10 year history. 

I guess I'm lucky in the way that I can be in and out of the DMV in 30 minutes (longest I have ever had to wait was just under an hour). 

As for the rest I can't really help too much. I just make sure the Doctor fills in all the parts he or she needs to and then take it to the DMV. I haven't had an issue yet with the DMV forgetting to stamp stuff or any issues with the process.


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## ChanelCinq (Aug 12, 2013)

DesertEMT66 said:


> Each employer is different. My employer will only allow 3 points on our record at a single time. My H-6 printout was a 10 year history.
> 
> I guess I'm lucky in the way that I can be in and out of the DMV in 30 minutes (longest I have ever had to wait was just under an hour).
> 
> As for the rest I can't really help too much. I just make sure the Doctor fills in all the parts he or she needs to and then take it to the DMV. I haven't had an issue yet with the DMV forgetting to stamp stuff or any issues with the process.



Well if they do a 10 year history then I have 2 points.  That is good info to know that your employer allows 3 points at a time.  I would imagine most companies are pretty similar.  So in that case I would have to wait for them to get rid of those old records.  If it goes the way everything else goes then I think I will be waiting my whole life as I have no confidence in the DMV.

DesertEMT66 maybe I need to go to a DMV in Middle of No Where, California.  Perhaps they are more competent there.


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## DesertMedic66 (Aug 12, 2013)

Having a population of under 50,000 really helps speed the process along haha


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## bbmtnbb (Aug 12, 2013)

Even if the old accidents and tickets show up between 10-15 years back the points should not be counted any more.  The report may still show them but the points column should not show points.  DMV would have pulled your license if the points for the last 15 years were really still on your report.  I would ask an employer if they would count the ten years or the 15? My employer gets a 10 year report but only look at the last 3 years for insurance.  I only had 10 years on my CA DMV report and I have never asked them to remove anything else.  Good Luck.


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## ChanelCinq (Aug 15, 2013)

bbmtnbb said:


> Even if the old accidents and tickets show up between 10-15 years back the points should not be counted any more.  The report may still show them but the points column should not show points.  DMV would have pulled your license if the points for the last 15 years were really still on your report.  I would ask an employer if they would count the ten years or the 15? My employer gets a 10 year report but only look at the last 3 years for insurance.  I only had 10 years on my CA DMV report and I have never asked them to remove anything else.  Good Luck.




THat is very helpful.  When I was back at the DMV on Monday the agent basically said the same thing.  That companies are just looking for insurance purposes and they are only looking at the last 10 years or 3 years but they don't care at all what I did 15 years ago (unless it is a DUI, which it is not).

And if they only look at 3 years then my record is completely clean.


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