DMV seeks volunteers to help with long lines at driver’s license offices

The long lines at Division of Motor Vehicles driver’s license offices across the state have prompted the DMV to ask for volunteers — to hand out bottles of cold water to customers waiting in line.

The DMV sent an email to all state Department of Transportation employees on Monday afternoon asking them to volunteer for four-hour shifts at driver’s license offices in North Carolina. It was sent on behalf of DMV Commissioner Torre Jessup, who acknowledged last week that customers at many DMV offices have been waiting for hours to see someone.

“We need your help!,” the email begins. “Commissioner Jessup is requesting volunteers to hand out water at the Driver License offices that are experiencing excessively long wait times and lines over the next four (4) weeks. It is four (4) hour shifts any day you can volunteer.

“Providing GREAT customer service is our goal, and we need your help to achieve this mission,” the email continued. It concluded: “We appreciate everyone’s efforts as we try to improve customer service and wait times.”

Jessup said summer is usually a busy time at DMV offices, as students get their licenses or ID cards before starting school. But this summer is particularly bad largely because people are heeding DMV’s call to get a REAL ID, a form of driver’s license that satisfies federal identification standards that will go into full effect in October 2020. While a driver can renew a license online, a REAL ID is only available by coming in to a driver’s license office.

The lines are longest at 25 to 40 offices in the state, mostly in urban areas such as the Triangle, Jessup said.

DMV spokesman John Brockwell said he’s not sure if the agency has ever made a request for volunteers like this before, but said several people had expressed an interest in helping out in just the first couple of hours.

“We are getting a tremendous response from employees across the state,” he said.