United States Driver's Licenses
The data stored on magnetic stripes on American driver's licenses is specified by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Not all states use a magnetic stripe on their driver's licenses. For a list of those that do, see the AAMVA list of US License Technology. The AAMVA site also contains a list of the Canadian jurisdictions that use magnetic stripes on their driver's licenses.
The following data is stored on track 1:
- Start Sentinel - one character (generally '%')
- State or Province - two characters
- City - variable length (seems to max out at 13 characters)
- Field Separator - one character (generally '^') (absent if city reaches max length)
- Last Name - variable length
- Field Separator - one character (generally '$')
- First Name - variable length
- Field Separator - one character (generally '$')
- Middle Name - variable length
- Field Separator - one character (generally '^')
- Home Address (house number and street) - variable length
- Field Separator - one character (generally '^')
- Unknown - variable length
- End Sentinel - one character (generally '?')
The following data is stored on track 2:
- ISO Issuer Identifier Number (IIN) - 6 digits
- Drivers License / Identification Number - 13 digits
- Field Separator — generally '='
- Expiration Date (YYMM) - 4 digits
- Birth date (YYYYMMDD) - 8 digits
- DL/ID# overflow- 5 digits (If no information is used then a field separator is used in this field.)
- End Sentinel - one character ('?')
The following data is stored on track 3:
- Template V#
- Security V#
- Postal Code
- Class
- Restrictions
- Endorsements
- Sex
- Height
- Weight
- Hair Color
- Eye Color
- ID#
- Reserved Space
- Error Correction
- Security
Note: Each state has a different selection of information they encode, not all states are the same. Note: Some states, such as Texas, have laws restricting drivers licenses being swiped under certain circumstances.
Read more about this topic: Magnetic Stripe Card
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states and/or driver:
“In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“It is a united will, not mere walls, which makes a fort.”
—Chinese proverb.
“I cannot say what poetry is; I know that our sufferings and our concentrated joy, our states of plunging far and dark and turning to come back to the world—so that the moment of intense turning seems still and universal—all are here, in a music like the music of our time, like the hero and like the anonymous forgotten; and there is an exchange here in which our lives are met, and created.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“God help the horse, and the driver too!
And the people and beasts who have never a friend!
For the driver easily might have been you,
And the horse be me by a different end!
And nobody knows how their days will cease!
And the poor, when they’re old, have little of peace!”
—James Kenneth Stephens (1882–1950)