News

Kiosk use suggested to reduce lines at DMV

June 16, 2004

SALT LAKE CITY - Utah State Senator Bill Hickman wants to see the state's DMV division devote more resources to reducing the time customers spend in line, acccording to an article in Deseret Morning News.

"Twenty minutes waiting in line, I can tell you what my customers would do at the bank," said Hickman, a banker by profession. "That would not even be close to being acceptable."

One audit from April 2003 found that the average wait in one Salt Lake County office was 62 minutes. But that same office had an average wait of only eight minutes at the end of July, 2003.

Hickman suggested that the DMV should add computerized kiosks the same way airlines are now using self-service to allow passengers to print their own boarding passes.

"Not everybody's going to go online. Not everybody's going to use a kiosk. But I am a strong believer in customer service. You might as well make it as convenient to them as you can," Hickman said.

"This is a one-on-one relationship with our taxpayers and our state employees. We just need to give the best possible service that we can and be as innovative as possible."

Rodney G. Marrelli, executive director of the Utah State Tax Commission, which oversees the DMV, suggested to the committee that one way to reduce the wait times might be to provide an incentive for renewing a license online.

Sixty percent of people who need a renewal come into a DMV office instead of renewing on the Internet, he said.