If summertime means a trip to the North Carolina DMV, these tips can help
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The N.C. DMV hired staff and moved services online, cutting average waits to 23 minutes.
- DMV lost federal funding that allowed it to open busiest offices on summer Saturdays.
- Online services rose 17% while in-office DMV visits fell about 2% this fiscal year.
Summer is the busy season at the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles. If you’ve got business with the DMV in the weeks ahead, we’ve got some advice and intel, as well as assurances that things aren’t as bad as they used to be.
The agency has hired more workers and moved more services online, which has helped greatly reduce wait times at driver’s license offices. Last August, customers waited a statewide average of 2 hours and 45 minutes after they checked in to a DMV office; at busy offices in the Triangle and Charlotte areas, the wait was four hours or more.
But in May, the average wait statewide was just over 23 minutes, according to DMV commissioner Paul Tine. That number could rise again as high school students take advantage of summer break to get their provisional licenses and as college graduates move for work and get their first North Carolina license.
“We’re watching that number real closely in the next weeks to see if this number is indicative of us having worked our way through our backlog,” Tine said earlier this month. “Or was it just the calm before the storm that’s coming?”
One change that doesn’t benefit DMV customers: The agency no longer has money to open its busiest offices on Saturdays during the summer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the DMV received federal funding that allowed it to open many offices an hour earlier and some on Saturday mornings. That money ran out this winter, and the General Assembly hasn’t acted on the DMV’s request for additional state funding.
As you prepare to do business with the DMV, here are some things that might help:
- Start by going to NCDMV.gov to see if you can complete your business online and avoid a trip to the DMV altogether.
- If you do plan to visit one of the state’s 117 driver’s license offices, check the estimated wait times at VisitDMV.nc.gov. Another office nearby might have a shorter line, or you may decide to try another day.
- You don’t need an appointment, and in fact most customers simply show up as walk-ins. But if you want an appointment, new ones come available each weekday, seven days in advance., and can be booked at skiptheline.ncdot.gov.
- The DMV takes walk-in customers all day or until the office reaches capacity. Many offices have shorter wait times in the afternoon.
- Walk-in customers are taken on a first-come, first-served basis. But you don’t have to stay at the office once you check in. DMV staff will make sure you have the right documents, then take your cell number and text you a link. Click the link and watch your place in line from anywhere. You’ll get a text when it’s almost your turn letting you know it’s time to come back to the office.
- Teens going through the provisional or graduated license process no longer have to make three separate trips to the DMV office. The final step of going to a full provisional license or to a regular Class C license can be done online. For more on that, go to www.ncdot.gov/dmv/license-id/driver-licenses/new-drivers/.
- You can renew a driver’s license or state identification card two consecutive times online, as long as your credential is not a REAL ID. Until now, someone with a standard driver’s license had to renew in person at a DMV office at least every 16 years. A new law extends that to 24 years for people without a REAL ID.
- People with a REAL ID license or state ID card can also renew online a second consecutive time if they had an in-person transaction where a new photo was taken since their last renewal. (As of mid-May, more than 230,000 people avoided a trip to a DMV office by renewing this way, according to the DMV.)
- Speaking of REAL ID, if you’re wondering if you want or need one, the DMV now has a quiz linked from its homepage to help you decide.
Overall, the increase in online transactions has reduced visits to DMV offices about 2% in the fiscal year that began last July, Tine said, while online business during that time was up 17%. That helps reduce lines, he said, with one caveat: The people who come to the office now tend to have more complicated business that requires more time.
“The complexity goes into our office when we move everything that’s simple online,” he said.
