The North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (NCDMV) is a government agency that issues regular, commercial and provisional licenses. They also administer permits for teens who want to obtain their driver’s license prior to turning 18.
The state also suffers under a rapid population growth. Since 2020, North Carolina gained around 396,000 new residents, making it the 9th most populated state in America, according to the Census Bureau. With the continuing migration pattern of new residents moving to the state, it is taxing for the DMV to manage and serve an increasing number of visitors. This is worsened by the department’s funding and staffing issues.
DMV offices are notorious for long lines and wait times, in part due to the increasing demand from the Triangle area amid population increases in recent years. Most offices in the state don’t have adequate staffing to handle the influx of clients, which, in turn, leads to appointments dated months out or walk-in clients waiting several hours for their needs to be processed.
The department’s logistical obstacles have not gone unseen. Recently, criticisms of its inability to keep up with the flow of clients reached the state government. “From 6:45 on February 15 to 5:45 on February 20, DMV software improperly allowed 2,136 customers to renew their licenses,” because of the improper license renewals Idemia – the DMV’s vendor – had to “find and retrieve the problem cards from among 33,000 printed at the same time,” according to the North Carolina General Assembly’s website.
This caused a backlog of over 350,000 identification documents, resulting in many visitors waiting more than two months to receive theirs. The issue has since been resolved and has been identified as a glitch in the software down at the DMV. This still caused weeks of backlog and handfuls of people ended up waiting for their identification cards to be sent to them.
DMV workers are within the 25th percentile in regards to salary; the hourly wage ranges between $14.82 and $18.12 an hour, which sums up to roughly $29,000 to $34,000 a year. According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the livable hourly wage in [North Carolina] is $21.56 and the poverty wage is $7.24 for one adult, making the average DMV worker below the living wage. The lack of funding results in understaffed and underfunded DMV offices, which has led to long lines of people waiting hours to be seen.
Booking appointments can guarantee a visitor is seen, but many don’t have the time to wait months for their transaction. Rather, many choose to do a walk-in, which often involves waking up early and waiting for hours, with the hope that they’re lucky, someone might cancel or show up late for their appointment.
Such an experience is what Green Hope senior Sophia Sosa (‘25) experienced on her recent visit to the DMV. Sosa arrived at the DMV around 7 a.m., where her grandmother had been waiting for her so she could take the driver’s test that ended at 4:00 p.m. She stated, “We stayed there with nothing to do in the hot sun until four [p.m.]” They both later approached an employee regarding options to accelerate their waiting time, but was told to “continue waiting” since they were already in line. After several hours, Sosa and her grandmother rescheduled an appointment, and her grandmother filed a complaint.
In the state, there are currently 116 DMV offices with 568 workers that work collectively to support residents. That averages to roughly four to five workers in each office – on the other hand, there are easily over one hundred people visiting each day. The popularity of a particular DMV also largely depends on the location, and heavily populated areas like Raleigh or Morrisville may see exacerbated staffing and funding issues.
The DMV continues to face logistical barriers. In some cases, long lines will often form outside of the office and people may not acquire the services they need. These issues are expected to continue into the future.
