With end of special funding, NC DMV offices will open a little later each day
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- DMV ends pandemic-funded extended hours; offices revert to 8 a.m. open time.
- $3M federal funding exhausted; 92 offices will drop hours from 10 to nine per day.
- New hires and expanded online renewals could help offset reduced hours.
If you like to be at a Division of Motor Vehicles office right when it opens in the morning, you’ll soon have an extra hour to get there.
The majority of the DMV’s 115 driver’s license offices statewide, including all those in the Triangle and Charlotte areas, have opened at 7 a.m. in recent years.
Starting Monday, Feb. 9, DMV license offices statewide won’t open until 8 a.m. All but a couple will continue to close at 5 p.m.
The reason for the change is that the DMV has exhausted $3 million in federal funding it received during the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed it to expand its hours. The goal was to try to help the DMV work through a backlog of customers who couldn’t be served when dozens of offices were closed in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.
With that money gone, 92 offices will be open nine hours a day starting Monday instead of 10.
The end of the special funding may also mean the DMV can no longer open some offices on Saturdays during the summer, the agency’s busiest season. Last summer, the federal money allowed the DMV to open 20 of its busiest offices for walk-in customers from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
“Unfortunately, this funding stream has been exhausted, and we’ll no longer be able to provide this extra hour of service at our offices,” DMV Commissioner Paul Tine said in a statement. “We hope to be able to offer extended hours, including Saturday service, but that is dependent on future funding availability.”
The shorter office hours come as the DMV has found other ways to serve more customers. Last summer, the General Assembly authorized an additional 64 examiners, the first growth in driver’s license office staff in over two decades.
The DMV and lawmakers have taken other steps to try to shorten the lines at driver’s license offices. They include a bill signed into law in September that, among other things, lets residents renew a license or state identification card two consecutive times online, as long as their credential is not a REAL ID. That has allowed tens of thousands of people a month to avoid a trip to the DMV.
This story was originally published February 2, 2026 at 2:43 PM with the headline "With end of special funding, NC DMV offices will open a little later each day."
