Motorists whose Arkansas driving records are checked by insurance companies and other authorized entities no longer will receive confirmation by mail from the state if a bill advancing through the Legislature becomes law.
If enacted, Senate Bill 359 by Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, will save $600,000 to $800,000 annually in processing and mail costs, according to Tonie Shields, an official with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, which sought the legislation.
Last year, the agency mailed 1.4 million notification letters at a cost of $610,000, she said.
"This bill is about efficiency," Shields, administrator of the department's Driver Services Office, said Thursday before the House Public Transportation Committee.
Existing state law requires that an "abstract of a driver's record" in the Driver Services Office cannot be disclosed unless a copy of the abstract and the name of the individual or organization requesting the abstract is sent to the driver named in the report. Sample's bill would remove that requirement.
Shields said Arkansas remains the only state to still mail out the letters notifying drivers that someone they authorized has checked their driving record.
"All other states have discontinued this -- every other state," she said.
Anyone who asks for someone's driving record must have written permission to see the record, she said. That permission typically is obtained by an insurance company, which would want to know someone's driving record before issuing a policy, Shields added.
If drivers want to know whether their driving records have been checked, they can call her office, Shields said.
The bill already has passed the Senate. It received a do-pass recommendation from the House committee and now goes to the full House.
A Section on 03/03/2017