You may be able to do your NC DMV business online. Will these new kiosks help?
There’s a new way to do business with the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.
After months of delay, the agency is rolling out the first of its computer kiosks that allow people to complete DMV transactions that don’t require an office visit, such as renewing a driver license or state ID.
The self-service kiosks are in three Harris Teeter grocery stores, one each in Raleigh, Charlotte and Fayetteville, and are an experiment of sorts. The DMV hopes to deploy up to 20 of them by year’s end to see how the public responds and whether they can help ease the lines in driver license offices.
If the machines work well and prove popular, DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin says he’d eventually like to see more than 100 across the state, mostly in metro areas where the agency’s offices are most crowded.
“I fully anticipate once we begin promoting it, if it tracks like other states, we’ll see a significant amount of interest,” Goodwin said in an interview.
What the kiosks can do
The transactions people can perform on the kiosks can also be done online by computer or mobile phone. But the DMV finds that a significant number of customers are still visiting offices for business they could probably do online.
The kiosks might encourage more of them to try DMV’s online services, Goodwin says. Besides the convenience, the kiosks allow people to print a temporary version of their ID or license, something they can’t do at home or on their phone.
For now, the kiosks can be used for a handful of popular services. They are:
▪ Renew a driver license or state ID and print a temporary one. The permanent one will arrive by mail. This cannot be done if you renewed online last time.
▪ Order duplicate driver licenses, permits and state IDs and change addresses. You must know your driver license or ID number to complete this transaction at a kiosk.
▪ If you are renewing a license or ID or ordering a duplicate, you can also register to vote at the kiosk.
Within two months, DMV customers should also be able to use the kiosks to renew or order duplicate vehicle registrations, change addresses on registrations and print license plate stickers.
Online transactions are not free. If you complete one on your computer or phone, the vendor that processes the transaction collects a $3 fee. If you use a kiosk, you’ll pay a different vendor, Indiana-based Intellectual Technology Inc., a $4.95 fee per transaction, plus a 2.35% credit/debit card fee. The private companies keep the fees; none of it goes to the state.
The DMV will start charging the 2.35% credit/debit card fee on all transactions starting July 1, including those done on computers and phones and in driver license offices.
More people choosing to do business online
Encouraging people to do their business online is one of several strategies the DMV is trying to reduce crowding and long lines at its driver license offices. There are now 22 different transactions that people can do online rather than go to an office; the complete list can be found at www.ncdot.gov/dmv/offices-services/online/.
Goodwin said 988,000 people used the agency’s online driver license services last year, a 31% increase over the year before.
“If we can have some equivalent interest in these kiosks, then that will help significantly reduce lines and give customers more options than they’ve had before,” he said.
Goodwin hoped to introduce the kiosks last summer and then sometime in the fall. He said it took longer than expected to ensure the system worked. The DMV quietly launched the service on Feb. 23.
The first three DMV kiosks are inside the Harris Teeter stores, in the front near other machines. The one at the Harris Teeter in the Brier Creek area of Raleigh is sandwiched between a bank ATM and a machine that sells North Carolina lottery tickets.
The first three DMV kiosks can be found at these Harris Teeter stores:
▪ The Corners at Brier Creek, 4221 Corners Parkway in Raleigh.
▪ Riverbend Village, 4701 Smith Farm Road in Charlotte.
▪ Highland Centre, 2800 Raeford Road in Fayetteville.
