You’re booking the road test. The DMV website says something about a driving log. Now you need to figure out what that means, whether the document you have is acceptable, and whether you need to transfer everything to a state form or if what you’ve got is fine.

Here’s the answer, then the details.

What the DMV wants

Every state has its own hour requirement, but the information they want on a log is almost identical across all of them:

The teen driver’s name
Each session’s date
Start time and end time (or total duration)
Whether the session was day or night driving
Total hours in each category
Supervisor’s name for each session
Supervisor’s signature (sometimes a single certification signature at the end, not one per entry)

A few states have their own certification form (New York uses MV-262) that a parent must sign. In those cases you still need the log to show the hours, but the official form is the certification that the hours happened.

Most states don’t require their specific form. They require the information. A clean, complete, clearly formatted log that contains everything in the list above is accepted everywhere.

What Moda’s PDF looks like

When you export from Moda, you get a single PDF with:

A header section with the teen’s name, state, and the date range covered.

A session table with one row per drive. Each row shows the date, start and end time, total duration, day or night (determined by actual sunset times, not an arbitrary cutoff), miles driven, and road types covered. If you tagged skills practiced during that session, those show up too.

A summary block at the bottom: total hours, total night hours, total miles, and a breakdown by road type. This is the part DMV staff actually look at.

A signature line for supervisor certification.

The PDF is clean. No logos taking up half the page, no decorative elements. It’s formatted to be functional, not impressive.

Do you have to use the DMV’s own paper form?

Usually no. Most states allow any complete log. The operative question is whether your log contains the required information, not whether it was printed from the DMV’s website.

There are two exceptions worth knowing. First: if your state requires a specific certification document (New York’s MV-262, for example), you need that form filled out separately. The Moda PDF covers the log portion, and you complete the state’s certification form to go with it. Second: call ahead. Requirements change, and a 3-minute call to your DMV office before the road test is worth it. Ask them specifically: “I have a printed driving log from an app. Does it need to be on your form, or just contain all the required information?”

In almost every case they’ll tell you a complete log is fine.

How to get your PDF from Moda

Open the app, go to your session history, and tap the export button. You can export the full log or a date range. The PDF generates on-device and you can share it, AirDrop it, save it to Files, or print it directly from iOS.

Print it in color or black and white. It’s designed to be readable either way. Standard 8.5x11. If your log is long (lots of short sessions over many months), it’ll be multiple pages; that’s fine.

What about supervisor signatures?

The exported PDF has a signature line. Your supervising parent or guardian signs it before you bring it to the appointment. If the DMV wants individual supervisor signatures per session, write them in. The table has a notes column you can use, or add them by hand in the margin. In practice, most states want a single certification signature, not a signature for every single entry.

Night hours specifically

If your state requires a minimum number of night hours (most require between 10 and 15), the Moda PDF breaks those out separately in the summary. The DMV staffer doesn’t have to count through your log manually. The number is right there.

Night driving is determined by actual sunset and sunrise times for your ZIP code on the date of each session. Not “after 8pm.” Not “after dark” as a vague concept. The real civil twilight for your specific location and date.

This matters if you live in the northern US and logged a lot of winter driving. Sunset at 4:30pm counts as night. Sunset at 8:45pm in July doesn’t. The log reflects reality.

Timing: when to export

Export the PDF a day or two before the road test, not the morning of. Give yourself time to print it, check it over, and notice if anything looks off. If sessions are missing, add them manually in the app before you export.

Bring a printed copy to the DMV. Some examiners also accept a digital version on your phone, but bring paper. That’s one less thing to go wrong.

If you’re behind on hours

The road test examiner can see how many hours you’ve logged. If the log is thin, they know. Booking the test before you have enough hours is a waste of a test appointment fee in most states. Some states require proof of completed hours just to book.

If you’re close but not quite there, keep driving. The permit period exists for a reason. A teen who finishes at 52 hours is genuinely better prepared than one who finishes at 42.

Stop manually tracking hours. Moda logs driving automatically.

Auto-detects night driving, exports DMV forms, and syncs across family phones.