Turnaround at DMV 'amazing,' drivers say

Motorists and potential motorists wait in line at the DMV on Laurens Road. e-mail this story

"It was the best time I ever had in my life," she said.

She went in at lunchtime to replace her lost license, and was back outside 20 minutes later.

Project Phoenix, the new computer system that caused unbearably long lines in offices in the summer of 2002, seems to have worked out its glitches, state officials and customers say.

Clerks have gotten used to updated computers and Windows-based software, greeters take questions at the door in 39 offices, and customers can update their licenses online, among other Internet-based services.

"I think that's had a tremendous impact on the wait times," Department of Motor Vehicle spokeswoman Beth Parks said.

Saturday hours have helped, and the DMV now has an ombudsman office, taking and responding to customer service problems.

Statewide, wait times that averaged 66 minutes in September 2002 were down to about 15 minutes a year later.

"They've gotten a lot better," said Mark Dlugosz, who needed only 10 minutes at the Laurens Road office to get his license reinstated.

"Amazing," he said.

However, the DMV could stand some improvement in its telephone service, Dlugosz said.

"Sometimes you cannot even get a hold of them," he said. "It's busy, busy."

He had questions about license reinstatements that only people in the Columbia office of DMV could answer, he said.

Parks said customer-service representatives were added at the call center in Columbia. About 40 people work there now, she said.

Those wanting to call a local branch won't find numbers in the newest Greenville phone book. Parks said she wasn't sure why, but the numbers can be found at www.scdmvonline.com.

"All the branches now have voice mail," she said. "We get so many calls in branch offices that it was difficult for those clerks to take care of customers that were standing in line."

Calls are returned within 24 hours, she said.

Marsha Bowers of Greenville, who also got in and out of the Laurens Road branch smoothly last week, said it's frustrating when she can't reach a real person on the phone. She was getting a new tag for her car but had mistakenly checked a box on the back of her title. So the DMV folks sent her home to obtain an error statement. She later realized she didn't know what that was.

"I actually had to come back up here and ask them because you can't get anybody on the phone," she said. "You've got to have people that you can talk to. At least if you've got a real problem, if you've got a quirky question."

So, her final DMV trip was her third in two days. Tag in hand, she still smiled.

"I think it's gotten better," she said.

Waits as long as four hours were not unheard of in 2002 after the state installed the $40 million computer system. Clerks didn't know the system, and there was a backlog of paperwork.

"They had been trained, but when you have a brand-new piece of software, it takes a while to figure out," Parks said.

Anna B. Brutzman can be reached at 864-298-4394.