Vehicle renewals to cost $5 more at DMV offices

Richmond Times Dispatch
Published: June 29, 2008

Starting July 1, renewing your motor-vehicle registration at one of Virginia’s 74 Department of Motor Vehicles offices is going to cost you more than a wait.

Try another $5.

Renewing your registration in person will cost $44, up from $39.

The increase, which the General Assembly approved this year in Senate Bill 116, is part of an effort to shift many routine DMV customer services to the phone or Internet.

The result, officials say, will save the department money and mean less waiting in line at DMV branches. It also will free employees to help customers with more complex transactions, and allow the department to begin preparing to implement the federally mandated Real ID program in late 2009. That law, which Congress passed in 2005, sets national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses.

“We’d like to reduce waiting lines, and it’s cheaper on a transactional basis,“ said DMV Commissioner D.B. Smit.

“We’re also looking at Real ID, and we’ve got to clear out a lot of space to make room for folks that are going to have to come in to our customer-service centers to get their driver’s license renewed when it comes into effect.“

Officials say nearly 99 percent of vehicle-registration renewals can be processed without going to a DMV office. Currently, only 65 percent of Virginia car owners renew by mail, phone or Internet.

The $5 surcharge stick is not without a carrot—those who register online will receive a $1 discount on the current fee and avoid the $5 surcharge. Those who renew for a two-year period will receive a $2 discount.

Those who renew registrations by mail will also avoid the $5 surcharge, as will those who use the DMV’s automated phone service.

The $5 surcharge will be waived if a customer has to use the service center for an additional transaction that cannot be completed through any other means.

Officials note that only a handful of transactions need to be done in person at a DMV customer-service center. Among them are the first-time application for a driver’s license, obtaining a commercial driver’s license and obtaining an identification card.

DMV has until December 2009 to implement the first stage of the Real ID Act.

The complex act will, in part, establish electronic databases to verify identifications people use to board airplanes and enter federal facilities.

Eventually, every driver in the state will have to come to a DMV customer-service center to renew their license for the first time after the law is implemented.

Officials say it will bring 250,000 more people into DMV offices each year, which they say is another reason to encourage customers now, by means of a surcharge, to avoid using the offices for the easy transactions.

“We’re going to start moving that traffic out and backfilling with much more complex transactions,“ Smit said. “This creates the space that we otherwise would not have.“