NC DMV says wait times at license offices are half what they were 2 months ago
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- October average DMV wait time were half what they were in August, agency says.
- New law allows more online renewals, eliminating tens of thousands of visits a month.
- State hiring more workers and opening new offices to further cut queues.
People are wasting less time waiting at the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.
The average wait time at driver’s license offices statewide was roughly half in October what it was in the month ending Sept. 8, according to new data from the agency. Customers waited an average of one hour and 23 minutes at DMV offices in October, down from 2 hours and 45 minutes a couple of months earlier.
The end of summer, the DMV’s busiest season, accounts for some of the improvement, as students rushed to get permits and licenses before heading back to school.
But Paul Tine, the DMV’s commissioner, also credits a new law that allows tens of thousands of people each month to renew their licenses online rather than in person at an office. Among other things, the law lets residents renew a driver’s license two consecutive times online instead of one, as long as their credential is not a REAL ID.
“In the last three weeks, 26,000 people have done online transactions they would not have been able to do previously to this legislation being enacted,” Tine told state lawmakers at a hearing last week. “It’s seriously impactful what you all have enabled us to do.”
The wait time data covers 110 driver’s license offices equipped with the agency’s new check-in system. The clock starts when a customer signs in, so time waiting before they encounter a DMV employee or before the office opens is not counted.
The average wait time varied greatly by office, from a few minutes to more than three hours. The longest average wait in the state was 3 hours and 11 minutes at the Hendersonville office, followed closely by Durham South at 3 hours and 9 minutes and Oxford at 3 hours and 8 minutes.
The average waits in Fuquay-Varina, Garner and Cary were just under three hours. Cary showed among the biggest improvements, cutting the wait time from more than 5 hours on average in August to 2 hours and 47 minutes in October.
While customers at a handful of offices waited longer on average last month, the overwhelming trend was faster service. At 45 offices, the average wait time was less than an hour last month, compared to only 17 offices in August.
Other changes should help more
Tine, who became commissioner on May 6, says his goal is that a visit to the DMV will be like going to the bank: You walk in and wait in line 10 or 15 minutes before being served.
That kind of service is still a ways off in most DMV offices. But several changes should result in shorter lines in the future. They include:
More staff: At the DMV’s request, the General Assembly authorized it to hire 61 additional driver’s license examiners over the next two years. That will allow the agency to fully staff the computer terminals in its offices statewide. The first 40 of those additional workers have been hired and are being trained.
More offices: Lawmakers also directed the agency to open four new driver’s license offices and hire another 36 people to staff them. The new offices include a larger one in Fuquay-Varina and new ones in Brunswick, Cabarrus and Sampson counties.
More online business: Additional provisions of the bill signed into law last month will allow more people to complete transactions online. They include teens under 18 who as of Tuesday can receive their full provisional license without an additional trip to the office. Altogether, the DMV estimates the new law will allow up to 400,000 people a year to do business online that used to require a trip to an office.
Operational changes: The DMV is also looking for ways to become more efficient with the staff and offices it has. One example: Last month it began replacing machines used to scan documents with new ones that can get the job done 90 seconds faster on average, Tine said.
“Which doesn’t sound like a lot,” he said. “But when you have 670 examiners across the state, you can do 100,000 more transactions a year when you save 90 seconds per transaction.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 4:00 PM with the headline "NC DMV says wait times at license offices are half what they were 2 months ago."
