Check a New York DMV facility licence
Type the facility number or the name of the shop. 40,514 current licences across 24,368 facilities — and the answer tells you everything that facility may do, not just one line of it.
Checking a whole network rather than one shop? Pro access resolves a list, and the datasets are published with their prices — from USD 300 a month for the stream of changes.
Three kinds of inspection station. Only one is for you.
New York requires a safety and emissions inspection every year. The Department licenses three different inspection stations, and the difference is invisible from the street:
| Code | Licensed as | Current | Can it inspect your car? |
|---|---|---|---|
ISP | Public Inspection Station | 8,021 | Yes — this is the one. |
ISD | Dealer Inspection Station | 222 | No. It inspects the vehicles the dealer sells. |
ISF | Fleet Inspection Station | 181 | No. It inspects an operator’s own fleet. |
Why the distinction exists, and how to check before you drive there.
One facility, several licences
A DMV facility number can carry more than one licence, and 11,758 of the 24,368 facilities do — 48.3%. The commonest pairing is a repair shop that is also a public inspection station: 7,643 places can both fix your car and inspect it.
The Department’s own lookup shows one licence at a time. Search a number here and you get all of them together, current and expired, which is the only way to answer « what is this place allowed to do? »
| Facilities holding | Facilities | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 licence | 12,610 | 51.7% |
| 2 licences | 7,932 | 32.6% |
| 3 licences | 3,367 | 13.8% |
| 4 licences | 372 | 1.5% |
| 5 licences | 74 | 0.3% |
| 6 licences | 10 | 0.0% |
| 7 licences | 3 | 0.0% |
The obligation behind all this
New York Vehicle & Traffic Law, Article 12-A — the Motor Vehicle Repair Shop Registration Act is blunt about it:
« No person shall permit the display of any sign required to be displayed by this article indicating to the public that an official repair shop is operating unless a repair shop registration has been issued to that person and is currently valid. »
A shop without a valid registration may not even display the sign. That is what makes this register worth checking before you leave a car somewhere.
What the Department licenses, statewide
| Licensed as | Current licences | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Repair Shop | 13,539 | 33.4% |
| Public Inspection Station | 8,021 | 19.8% |
| Used Car Dealer | 7,661 | 18.9% |
| ATV only dealership | 2,627 | 6.5% |
| Repair Shop Body | 2,503 | 6.2% |
| Transporter | 1,354 | 3.3% |
| New Car Dealer | 1,035 | 2.6% |
| Wholesale Dealer | 1,001 | 2.5% |
| Boat Dealer | 674 | 1.7% |
| Dismantler | 400 | 1.0% |
| Itinerant Vehicle | 342 | 0.8% |
| Automobile Broker | 276 | 0.7% |
| Dealer Inspection Station | 222 | 0.5% |
| Scrap Processor | 191 | 0.5% |
| Fleet Inspection Station | 181 | 0.4% |
| Yacht Broker | 155 | 0.4% |
| Snowmobile Dealer | 138 | 0.3% |
| Scrap Collector | 94 | 0.2% |
| Drive-in Appraiser | 54 | 0.1% |
| Salvage Pool | 26 | 0.1% |
| Mobile Car Crusher | 20 | 0.0% |
All 61 counties · Every kind of licence · Inspection stations · Facilities holding several licences · How this site is built