If you’re going to the DMV any time soon in North Carolina, you’re likely going to have a long wait. The typically busy summer season is even more so this year because of a surge in residents trying to get their Real IDs. But new DMV commissioner Paul Tine, who was appointed by the governor in April, is hoping to alleviate some of that wait time. Reporter Galen Bacharier wrote about it for NC Newsline, and he joins me now.
Marshall Terry: I know the DMV just this month opened some offices on Saturdays to try and deal with the demand. But just how long are wait times? And how hard is it to get an appointment?
Galen Bacharier: For folks walking in in the morning at offices across the state, you're going to be looking at pretty long waits. At one DMV office that we were at last week in east Raleigh, officials told us that wait times in the morning for walk-ins were about three and a half hours. As for appointments, that's also challenging. The website is notorious for having appointments booked for months in advance. I personally had to get an appointment recently. I had to book mine two and a half months out, and it was for an office an hour away.
Terry: I can even one-up you there. I had to go into the DMV recently myself, and my appointment was three months booked in advance. So the new DMV commissioner said he's putting in place some quick fixes and also some long-term solutions to try and help with the long lines. Let's start with those quick fixes. What are they?
Bacharier: Yeah, he's talked a lot about improving morale among the staff they have now. Obviously, a lot of these offices are understaffed. He said they're focused on replacing some really outdated equipment, issuing new uniforms, which they haven't done in several years. They are shifting some folks around to get some of those really understaffed offices a little more up to speed. And then they're also updating their website. They've created a tool for specifically folks who are looking for a REAL ID to more easily understand whether they need it — and, if so, what they need to get that REAL ID.
And they're also doing what they're calling a "triage method" for some of these walk-ins. They have these huge lines form outside the office and they basically have staff go out and make sure that folks have the documents they need so they're not waiting in line for hours only to get up and be told that they don't have what they need.
Terry: And what about the long-term solutions Tine wants?
Bacharier: Yeah, obviously the biggest thing there is just hiring more people. They need more examiners. They need more workers throughout the entire department in order to speed things up and get down on that backlog of appointments and requests to get REAL IDs. They need to modernize a lot of technology, as well.
Terry: Now, how much of this can Tine do by himself as DMV commissioner? And how much is dependent on state lawmakers?
Bacharier: A lot of the longer term stuff will depend on the legislature and how much they choose to fund the department. Tine and the DMV have sort of been empowered by the Department of Transportation and the governor to make a lot of these quick fixes, and they can do that. But they don't have the power to produce new money, right? That has to be allocated to them by lawmakers. So in order to hire new examiners — which is really the top priority — or to really invest in new technology and replacing a lot of this equipment that's decades old, that is going to be up to the General Assembly and how much they choose to invest going forward.
Terry: And do you have a sense at all if they're willing to invest more?
Bacharier: There's differing opinions. House and Senate leadership right now are in negotiations about the state budget, the House budget — which in general hews a lot closer to some of what the governor wanted — has included money to fund a bunch of new DMV positions.
Senate and the Republican leadership there has been a little more hesitant about DMV changes. Phil Berger, who's the Senate president, has expressed a little more skepticism. He's not thrilled about the idea of investing a bunch of new money while there's still an audit going on.
And there's clearly some frustrations among lawmakers about the efficacy of the department. That'll be something that needs to be ironed out as these negotiations take place. So it really is a wait and see. We could see a compromise between the two, or we could just see one side get their way. In the end, it really remains to be seen.
