With new check-in system, NC DMV hopes to make lines outside a thing of the past
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- DMV expands new check-in system to reduce outdoor lines at 82 offices statewide.
- Text alerts notify walk-ins when there's a seat for them, allowing them to wait off-site.
- New system enables staff to cap walk-ins so everyone gets served that day.
If you visited a Division of Motor Vehicles driver’s license office in recent years, chances are you spent some time standing in line outside.
Now the DMV is changing the way it checks people in at those offices to try to eliminate the lines and handle customers more efficiently. The agency has tested the new approach at 24 offices and is rolling it out at another 58 on Friday, including all of them in the Triangle and Charlotte areas.
Here’s how it works: Customers check in with a DMV employee when they arrive. The employee makes sure they’re in the right place and have all the documents they need to do their business.
Then customers are signed in and immediately receive a text message with a link that tells them how many people are waiting ahead of them. They are then free to go sit in their car, take a walk or go to a store or coffee shop nearby. When there’s a seat for them in the lobby, they will receive a text telling them to return to the office and wait to be called.
“We’re saying, ‘Okay, you’re in the system. You’re this number of person in line,’” DMV commissioner Paul Tine said in an interview. “’You can go do what you need to do and then come back when you’re called and you’ll be served.’”
The goal, Tine said, is that the lines that have become ubiquitous outside many offices will disappear.
“The main thing that we’re doing is making sure people can get out of the sun in this heat,” Tine said.
The system has another advantage. For the first time, DMV employees will know how many walk-in customers are waiting and can stop signing in new arrivals when the office reaches capacity.
“That way, we don’t have the problem of people waiting in line all day and we can’t serve them,” Tine said.
The new check-in system coincides with another change. The DMV will continue to see customers by appointment. But now when people cancel those appointments a few days ahead of time, the agency will make those spots available to walk-in customers, rather than try to fill them in advance.
And it turns out lots of people cancel. The DMV texts those with appointments four days in advance to see if they’re still coming, and as many as half say no, Tine said.
“Quite frankly, there’s a lot of hoarding of appointments and people doing multiple appointments and gaming the system,” he said. “Or getting two appointments because they’re not sure they’ll pass the first time.”
Where the DMV has tried the new approach, including the check-in system, it’s been able to increase the number of customers it serves a day by 20%, Tine said.
An improvement over previous check-in system
The DMV has tried a digital check-in system before. Three years ago, it rolled out QR codes that people could scan when they arrived at an office and then receive a text message to establish their place in line.
The QR system had flaws, including that customers didn’t speak to a DMV employee to make sure they had what they needed. The system also didn’t have a way to stop people from signing in when an office had reached capacity for the day.
The DMV had expected to roll out the new check-in system later this summer, but the record heat prompted it to start sooner. Tine warned there may be some “hiccups” with it in the coming days.
The new system will not be used at 33 smaller DMV offices in rural areas. Those offices may not have the cell phone coverage or the staffing to make it work. The 82 larger offices where the system is in use handle about 88% of DMV customers.
The new approach is not a panacea, Tine said. It addresses some of the symptoms of what ails the DMV but doesn’t fix everything.
“We need to get better, faster, more predictable, more accurate,” he said.
More changes are in the works, he said.
Among them could be more employees. Staffing levels at DMV driver’s license offices have not kept up with population growth, the agency says, and now lawmakers appear to agree.
Budget bills in both the House and Senate include authorization to create 61 full-time positions the DMV says it needs to fully staff its driver’s license offices statewide.
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 5:16 PM with the headline "With new check-in system, NC DMV hopes to make lines outside a thing of the past."
