NC DMV wants to reduce lines and delays. Here’s how many workers it is asking to hire
The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles will ask lawmakers this year to let it hire dozens of additional employees to fully staff its driver’s license offices and to open or expand three others.
The DMV wants to hire 61 additional people to fill holes at its driver’s license offices, particularly in the Triangle and Charlotte areas. There are not enough employees to fully staff 46 of its 115 offices statewide, said Mike Newsome, the DMV’s director of Driver Services.
“We have empty seats,” Newsome told state Board of Transportation members this month. “We need 61 positions to fill those work stations.”
The DMV also will ask for authority to hire 24 driver’s license examiners to open new offices in fast-growing Brunswick and Cabarrus counties and to expand the office in South Durham. The DMV would move the Durham office from Roxboro Street to a larger location and increase the number of work stations from nine to 15.
The agency says its staffing has not kept up with population growth in recent decades, contributing to the long lines and delays common at DMV offices across the state.
While North Carolina’s population has grown by about 2.6 million people since 2003, or about 31%, the DMV says it has been authorized to open only three new driver’s license offices during that time and hire no additional driver’s license examiners.
The General Assembly sets the number of people who can work in DMV driver’s license offices. That number of full-time employees is capped at 568.
The agency says it needs 629 employees to fully staff its offices. That includes examiners to run the computer terminals and someone to meet customers at the door or outside to make sure they’re in the right place and have the documents they need.
The DMV does get a pool of money to hire temporary employees at driver’s license offices. This year, that money pays for about 60 full-time temps and another 21 part-time ones, said spokesman Marty Homan.
But those workers don’t receive benefits and work under 11-month contracts, so turnover and vacancy are high, Homan said. And because they’re likely to leave, temporary workers are not trained to carry out many transactions until they’ve been on the job for six months.
More staff could help with vacancies, DMV says
The DMV hasn’t asked for more workers in its driver’s license offices in recent years because it had a hard time filling the job openings it had. More than 25% of license examiner’s jobs were vacant in the fall of 2021, and simply asking for more positions didn’t make sense, Homan said.
But the DMV was able to lower the vacancy rate to about 10% after lawmakers created a special fund to boost salaries and provided money for one-time $1,500 sign-on and retention bonuses for driver’s license examiners.
Newsome said being able to hire more people should help reduce the vacancy rate further. When a license examiner leaves, they often cite the workload and stress that comes from having too few employees, he said.
“Typically the most common responses that we get is simply that they’re tired,” Newsome said. “We’ve been told by staff, ‘If I do stay, I would like to see the terminals to my left and right filled. That would help me out.’”
The DMV first sought to hire an additional 80 license examiners a year ago. The N.C. Department of Transportation cut the request in half before sending it to Gov. Roy Cooper, whose proposed budget chopped the number in half again to 20.
The House version of the budget would have directed NCDOT to create up to 20 new driver’s license examiner positions by reclassifying vacant jobs elsewhere in the department. In the end, lawmakers could not agree on a new budget, and the request for more staff died.
This time, the request for 85 positions has been cleared by the secretary of Transportation and forwarded to Gov. Josh Stein’s office and the Office of State Budget and Management, which oversees the budget process.
Asked about the DMV’s request, Stein’s spokeswoman Morgan Hopkins said in an email, “We’re taking a close look at the DMV and look forward to working with them to make sure we’re serving North Carolinians as efficiently as possible.”
The General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene Jan. 29 and will aim to craft a budget by summer.
What the new hires would cost taxpayers
The DMV estimates it would cost about $4 million a year to hire 61 additional full-time license examiners. Eliminating the need for temporary workers would save about $2.2 million, bringing the net cost for the full-time hires to about $1.8 million a year to start.
The DMV would spend $8.6 million to purchase and furnish offices in Brunswick, Cabarrus and Durham counties and another $1.7 million in annual salaries to operate them.
The DMV is also looking to expand its driver’s license office in Fuquay-Varina in fast-growing southern Wake County. DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said the current office, in an old municipal building, is too small.
“As much as the facility is greatly appreciated, it does not meet the demands of the customer base,” Goodwin said. “Folks are regularly outside, because the lobby is too small, and there needs to be more space.”
It’s not clear yet how many additional staff, if any, would be needed in a larger Fuquay-Varina office.
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 6:30 AM with the headline "NC DMV wants to reduce lines and delays. Here’s how many workers it is asking to hire."
