NC DMV | Has your wait time decreased or increased for service at a DMV in North Carolina? Here’s what the data shows

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — The ABC11 I-Team uncovers a massive drop in average wait times at N.C. DMV locations statewide in October, but more than half have an average wait time of over an hour.

The I-Team is digging into wait time data from every North Carolina DMV office in the state. The data shows the average wait time during September and October of this year.

The release of the data comes as state leaders say major improvements have been made at the agency, after months plagued with stories about hours-long lines wrapped around locations.

Rachel Jones from Morrisville spent her birthday at the Durham South DMV, waiting to get a new license. She was already waiting for more than an hour when she spoke with ABC11.

“It wasn’t crowded when I got here, which was refreshing to see,” she said. “They told me to look at the link, refresh it, and make sure you’re seeing where you’re at. And so I had 27 people ahead of me. Now I got 20.”

NC DMV Commissioner Paul Tine shared with lawmakers on Nov. 6 that wait times are down more than an hour on average since July. He also told lawmakers that the division has also filled a large number of positions with vacancies sitting at just 4%, compared to close to 11% in April.

“Our wait times have definitely decreased about 40% since July, when we implemented some new systems at that time,” he said.

Tine credits the passage of Senate Bill 245 in October with a lot of the improvements made at the DMV.

The new law allowed for a handful of transactions to be handled online, potentially allowing for 400,000 a year to be taken care of virtually.

“It’s like having a completely additional day of work for all of our people by having that Senate Bill 245 and we’re already seeing some changes in our demand based on that,” he said.

The I-Team found more than 80% of DMV locations statewide did see their average wait times drop in the last month, but that’s not the case everywhere.

In October, Durham South had one of the worst average wait times in the state, and it went up instead of down.

Average wait times went up in Fuquay-Varina, too.

In all, average wait times dropped across the state – including in Garner, Cary, and at the Fayetteville West DMV.

At the Raleigh North DMV, wait times didn’t just improve. That location saw the biggest drop in wait times compared to any other DMV location in the state.

“I just went in and got checked in and went back quickly. So certainly the quickest turnaround I’ve had at the DMV,” said one driver who spoke with Eyewitness News while leaving Raleigh North.

The I-Team data investigation reveals that even with improvements statewide, long waits persist.

Last month, 60% of DMV offices had more than an hour wait on average, while 23% of DMV offices had more than a two-hour wait on average.

“It would be great in the grand scheme of things if we could just get in and get out,” said Jones.

Drivers tell the I-Team that they like the online waitlist, which shows how many people are ahead of them in line.

Commissioner Tine says new scanners – installed statewide last week – are expected to speed up transactions as well, allowing for at least 100 thousand more transactions to get processed each year.

“If you’re going to set up a culture of experimentation, which is what we’re trying to do and let the data tell us what we really should be doing next, you have to be able to fail,” said Tine.