No waiting at the DMV? Some NC offices are open Saturdays, and they need customers
People expect long lines at the Division of Motor Vehicles. But this summer, some North Carolina DMV offices have had a different problem: not enough customers.
On Saturday mornings, the waiting rooms in some driver’s license offices have emptied out well before the noon closing time, according to the DMV.
“We’ve actually had to send our staff home because there’s nobody to serve,” Transportation Secretary Eric Boyette told members of the state Board of Transportation on Wednesday.
Summer is the DMV’s busiest season, when school is out and more young drivers and transplants seek new licenses, a process that must be done in person. To handle the increased demand, the agency adds Saturday morning hours from early June through the end of August at 16 of its busiest driver’s license offices, including two each in Raleigh and Charlotte.
But on some Saturdays, some of those offices — Greenville, Hudson, Morganton, Winston-Salem and two locations in Greensboro — have run out of customers by about 10 a.m., Boyette said. The offices in Fayetteville, Jacksonville and Wilmington have also been slow, he said.
“They’re having a little traffic, but it’s still not what we expected,” he said.
The numbers have improved lately, after the DMV tried to get the word out about the lack of customers on Saturdays. DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin has done media interviews and gone on social media to highlight the Saturday hours. But some offices, including Greenville, Morganton and Hudson, remain underutilized, he said Thursday.
In contrast, Goodwin noted, the offices in Charlotte and Raleigh are very busy on Saturdays.
“In my opinion, we need more customers to consider offices other than Raleigh and Charlotte for the remaining Saturdays this summer,” he said.
Goodwin, who lives in Raleigh, took his son to the DMV on Spring Forest Road to get a driving permit on a recent Saturday. They arrived more than an hour before opening time and found a “significant line.” So Goodwin drove his son to an office in Greensboro, where he knew there would be fewer people waiting.
“It’s a relatively short line at 8:30,” he tweeted, along with a selfie outside the office.
The DMV sees Saturday customers on a first-come, first-served basis at the 16 offices from 8 a.m. to noon. That’s scheduled to end Aug. 26, though Goodwin says he eventually hopes to expand Saturday hours beyond peak season and to more offices as staffing allows.
Goodwin said the agency will analyze this summer’s data to help determine where to hold Saturday hours in the future. It may be that more offices in the Triangle and Charlotte areas will be open on Saturdays next summer, he said, though not necessarily at the expense of places that were underutilized this year.
“We want to serve all of North Carolina, so we want to be sure that we don’t negatively impact any region of the state,” he said. “We have to be smart about it.”
NC DMV offices open Saturdays
The following offices are open Saturdays for walk-in customers from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. For information about DMV offices, including wait times, go to www.ncdot.gov/dmv/offices-services/locate-dmv-office/
- Asheville, 1624 Patton Ave.
- Charlotte University City, 9711 David Taylor Drive
- Charlotte South, 201-H West Arrowood Road
- Fayetteville West, 831 Elm St.
- Greensboro West, 2391 Coliseum Blvd., Suite 12
- Greensboro East, 2527 E. Market St.
- Greenville, 4651 North Creek Drive
- Hudson, 309 Pine Mountain Road
- Huntersville, 12101 Mount Holly-Huntersville Road
- Jacksonville, 299 Wilmington Highway
- Monroe, 3122 U.S. 74 West
- Morganton, 115 Government Drive
- Raleigh North, 2431 Spring Forest Road
- Raleigh West, 3231 Avent Ferry Road
- Wilmington South, 2390 Carolina Beach Road
- Winston-Salem South, 2001 Silas Creek Parkway
This story was originally published August 4, 2023 at 5:45 AM with the headline "No waiting at the DMV? Some NC offices are open Saturdays, and they need customers."
