The leader of North Carolina's Division of Motor Vehicles says he's hoping to open four new offices within months.
The legislature recently approved funding for new DMV offices in Fuquay-Varina, the town of Garland in Sampson County, Cabarrus County and the town of Leland in Brunswick County.
Commissioner Paul Tine told lawmakers Wednesday he plans to use modular buildings at Department of Transportation properties that already have the necessary infrastructure.
"We want to get them up and running as quickly as possible." he said. "We've been looking at DOT facilities that already have the data lines in place. For example, in Brunswick, we just ordered a temporary office building to be put there on the DOT facility, so that we can go ahead and get that up and running in months, as opposed to a long period of time."
Tine says the average wait time at DMV offices has already dropped to an hour and a half. That's down from waits of nearly three hours earlier this year, and a wait time of about two hours in July.
Starting early next month, teen drivers will be able to apply for a full provisional license online, which will further improve wait times. Previously that step for teens required an office visit with a written driving log. "I know that parents out there are waiting for this," Tine said.
The DMV is also working to develop an AI chatbot to help with online transactions and information ahead of drivers' office visits. Another new online system will allow people to upload copies of necessary documents before they arrive at a DMV office.
Legislators on a House oversight committee questioned whether partial privatization of the DMV might also help improve service.
"It seems like a really convenient place to privatize would be in the driver testing," said Rep. Mark Brody, R-Union. "It seems the private enterprise could grab that easily, and then you can free some of those people up for other operations."
But Tine cautioned that such a move might be uneven access to DMV services between urban and rural areas. "That's one of the things that I think we need to be careful and have discussions about," he said. "We've got to drive services just as good, everywhere across the state, not just in our urban areas."
