In a preliminary report released on Monday, North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek says insufficient staffing at the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles (NCDMV) is leading to some of the major issues affecting customers across the state.
The report comes ahead of a full-scale audit, which is currently going through his office’s quality control process and is supposed to be released soon.
“With DMV staffing adjustments being considered during current budget negotiations, the professional team at the Office of the State Auditor and I feel the responsibility to provide pertinent information ahead of the full audit release,” he said in the press release. “Our data-driven analysis indicates that current DMV workforce levels are insufficient to meet the needs of North Carolinians. To provide citizens the service level they expect and deserve, the DMV must have more employees in its offices.”
Boliek said he has shared these observations with Gov. Josh Stein; Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham; House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell; NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Secretary Joey Hopkins; and DMV Commissioner Paul Tine.
Preliminary results on DMV staffing indicate that:
- Additional driver’s license examiners are necessary to meet public demand and reduce wait times at driver’s license offices across the state
- Flexibility in current personnel rules is necessary for the DMV to hire and retain staff more effectively
- Effective strategies are necessary to fill vacancies
Boliek said the DMV’s current reliance on temporary positions creates challenges because they are harder to fill, offer fewer benefits, and result in additional training costs due to high turnover. Of the DMV’s 142 temporary examiner positions, 97 (68%) remain vacant.
He said giving Tine flexibility to convert temporary positions to permanent roles and adjusting pay scales based on local labor market conditions may help attract and retain qualified examiners.
If those issues aren’t addressed, Boliek said customers will continue to face service delays, excessive wait times, and require multiple visits to driver’s license offices.
His office anticipates that the final audit report will identify more details of staffing requirements, including driver’s license office locations where additional personnel will have the most immediate impact.
He spoke with Carolina Journal in May about the audit.
“I think some of the challenges with the DMV audit have been collection of data and the use of data in the form the data is in,” Boliek told CJ. “Again, we’re dealing with a lot of legacy computer systems, the complexity of how the DMV works, and the interconnectivity with the Department of Transportation has also been a challenge. But I’ve got 14 auditors working on that project.”
Boliek told Council of State members in March that his office divided the DMV audit into multiple parts to complete a full floor-to-ceiling audit.
“Ultimately, we want to be part of the solution. And we want to help the new commissioner and the governor’s office get it right; that’s the goal,” he told CJ. “The DMV is not a partisan issue. The DMV is a North Carolina issue… We’re on the precipice of being able to release to the public a comprehensive report of the state of the DMV, with some recommendations for change. And with a new commissioner, Paul Tine, we think a lot of people have confidence in his bringing an outside, private-sector approach to helping work through the issues.”
Boliek also said that they have employed experts with a data-centered approach to help his staff with the new design aspect for the agency.
At a press conference in May, Hopkins said the DMV issues stem from a combination of factors, including a surge in population growth with over 2.5 million people moving to the state in the last 20 years, strained staffing levels, and the need for modernized systems.
Tine said that, on average, there are approximately 3,900 people in line each morning, with about 2,000 appointments scheduled online. Like a road under construction, fixing the process won’t happen overnight, but officials are promising a smoother ride ahead in the months and years to come.
Stein said Tine is working on a plan so that customers can move through more efficiently; trying to create a better website, which will allow people to take advantage of more services online, so they don’t have to come into the locations in the first place; and achieving a fully staffed workforce. Regarding the last point, Stein requested that the General Assembly appropriate 85 more positions for the DMV across the state, as it is the third fastest-growing state in the country.
Tine first discussed the early actions that he has taken, including looking at customer focus. He said this starts by owning the experience of a customer before they get to the front of the line. A major push is to check people’s paperwork to make sure it’s correct. They have had volunteers from inside the DMV to come back out in the field and interns to help with the process. There are also three pilot programs they are focusing on, including the East Raleigh DMV, about how to get people in and out of our offices as quickly as possible.
DMV systems, which currently run on a Disk Operating System (DOS), were identified as a major issue — one that officials say will take three to four years to fully resolve. Additionally, they noted that the scanners also require significant upgrades. They are also looking at ways to change the appointment process and the training for road tests.
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