(Columbia) May 28, 2003 - The South Carolina Department of Public Safety closed all Division of Motor Vehicles offices statewide on Wednesday as more than 1000 employees received customer service training in Columbia at the Koger Center for the Arts on Assembly Street.

DMV workers also learned about changes coming to the agency and how to better handle the stress of working with the public and laying some rumors to rest. Mike Howell, a Greenville DMV employee, says, "One of the biggest fallacies of the DMV is we're there to mistreat people, and that's not true."

Hilda Busbee, who works for the Division of Motor Vehicles in Bamburg, says she and her co-workers know each day brings a new set of challenges.

Their customer service training information contained a folder of learning materials with sketches of the difficult kinds of people they handle: foul-mouths, hysterics and jerks, "I wouldn't count them as jerks. People have different situations that make them react in certain ways."

The employees hope a new attitude and changes to the department will ease frustrations on both sides of the counter. Mary farmer: a Charleston DMV employee, "it's very difficult, but if you show them you care it goes very well."

Starting next month DMV customers won't have to stand in line. They'll be able to go online to renew licenses, tags and registrations. And,starting this weekend six offices across the state, those in Aiken, Charleston, Florence, Greenville, Irrmo and Rock Hill, will be open on Saturday.

Governor Mark Sanford spoke to employees at 10:30am.

by Hannah Nelson

updated 2:55pm by Chris Rees