DMV having success cutting wait times
Wait times for customers at state Department of Motor Vehicles offices have been shrinking significantly, newly released data show.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Wednesday attributed the trend to a pilot program launched in the fall at the DMV offices in Enfield and Wethersfield and since rolled out at other offices around the state.
The program was introduced at the Norwich branch in mid-November, where the average wait time during the month was 1 hour, 2 minutes, 32 seconds, according to the DMV data. That represents a 9 percent reduction over November 2015, when customers stood in line, on average, for 1 hour, 8 minutes, 23 seconds.
All 11 other branches in the state recorded greater year-over-year improvement, including Old Saybrook, where the average wait time shrank 39 percent from 1 hour, 31 minutes, 2 seconds to 55 minutes, 18 seconds.
In Waterbury, the average wait time improved 60 percent to 30 minutes, 24 seconds.
“They’ve only been at it a little more than a month,” DMV Commissioner Michael Bzdyra said of the Norwich office. “It takes some time…”
The smallest of the DMV branches, Norwich has about nine employees who interact with customers, two of whom are “very new,” Bzdyra said.
Malloy, who spoke Wednesday at a news conference at DMV headquarters in Wethersfield, directed the DMV in July to address the long wait times that have long plagued the department.
“For the last few decades, our state’s DMV systems needed a serious upgrade and modernization, but those tough decisions were put off for too long,” the governor said.
The DMV’s analysis led to the pilot program’s three main initiatives: Office doors now open 15 minutes early so that employees can begin reviewing customers’ paperwork before offices formally open; customers are presented with a numbered service ticket upon arrival at an office, eliminating the need for them to wait in line for a ticket and then wait again to be called for service; and employees are made available to act as customer advocates for those who have received a ticket.
DMV Deputy Commissioner Judeen Wrinn said the department hoped to reduce the average wait time by 50 percent, a goal it achieved at the Enfield and Wethersfield offices, where wait times were cut by 55 percent.
Bzdyra said the department continues to encourage customers to conduct as much DMV business as possible online, still the surest way to avoid lines at DMV offices.
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