— information courtesy of the N.C. Office of the State Auditor

 

The North Carolina Office of the State Auditor has released two audits of North Carolina’s Division of Motor Vehicles. The reports – including a performance audit and information systems audit – were conducted to examine the current operational challenges affecting the most forward-facing agency in state government.

“I pledged to audit the DMV to get to the root cause of its failure, and the reports dealing with licensing procedures and information systems are now complete,” said State Auditor Dave Boliek. “Our audit team has worked hard to find opportunities where the DMV can course correct and effectively serve North Carolina citizens.”

OSA’s performance audit shows the DMV experience for both customers and employees has gotten worse over the years, and that the relationship between the DMV and the N.C. Department of Transportation is a contributing factor.

Customer service has been declining, with wait times on the rise:

• Average DMV wait times stand at 1 hour and 15 minutes, up 15.5 percent since 2019.
• Data shows nearly 14 percent of visits exceeded 2.5 hours in fiscal year 2025, up about 79 percent since 2019.

Employees are struggling with workload and burnout:

• Only 47 percent of DMV workers believed the DMV fostered open communication.
• 43 percent expressed negative views of prior leadership support.
• Employees cited low salary, burnout, security concerns, lack of support and inadequate training.
• Average salaries are below $50,000 for examiners in both rural and urban areas.

Staffing levels are unsustainable:

• North Carolina’s population has grown by 2.5 million (29 percent) in the last 20 years, but driver license examiner positions have only increased by 52 positions (10 percent).
• Only 505 of the 710 driver license examiner positions are filled, roughly 160 vacancies remain.
• In Harnett County, there is only one examiner serving over 56,000 residents.

To address the structural challenges identified in the performance audit, and ensure DMV can deliver timely, effective, and citizen-centered services, OSA makes five recommendations:

• Policymakers should consider establishing DMV as an autonomous agency or authority with direct control over its budget, strategic planning and operations.
• DMV leadership should adopt a comprehensive strategic plan independent of DOT.
• DMV should conduct an in-depth staffing analysis to inform a multi-year, phased staffing plan that addresses examiner shortages and ensures service equity statewide.
• DMV should build and maintain a centralized performance dashboard to track and report key service metrics.
• DMV should partner with an industry expert to develop and implement evidence-based improvements to customer experience and service delivery.

The findings in the performance audit point toward a dysfunctional relationship between DMV and DOT. There are four systemic challenges stemming from the DMV’s governance structure as a division of DOT, including limited strategic input, restricted budget autonomy, insufficient performance data and exclusion from key process modernization initiatives.

Examples include:

• DMV generates 30 percent of DOT’s overall revenue, but accounts for only 2.8 percent of DOT’s expenditures.
• Of the 45 performance milestones in the DOT strategic plan for the 2023-2025 biennium, only two directly pertained to DMV operations.
• Only 31 percent of DMV’s staffing requests were included in DOT’s budget requests.
• DOT left out DMV customer satisfaction data in its performance report.
• DMV was excluded from planning and procurement phases of improvement efforts led by DOT.

“It’s time to solve the DMV problem. North Carolina has the will and the tools to make our DMV better. Our audit lays out some concrete steps to begin the process to fix the DMV,” Boliek said.

Each recommendation includes specific timelines for impacted parties to follow. OSA will be following up on each recommendation to ensure progress is being made.

In addition to the performance audit, OSA conducted an information systems audit of DMV. The information systems audit found that since 2014, the DMV and Department of Information Technology – Transportation initiated 46 projects that resulted in a cost of approximately $42 million. However, even with all the projects, IT modernization efforts have not produced meaningful customer service improvements, and the current DMV mainframe systems are outdated and overdue for replacement.

OSA made four recommendations for the DMV and DIT-T to take to improve operations.

The audit process for the DMV involved on-site visits to multiple locations, interviews with DMV and DOT personnel, and a thorough review of current strategic plans, general statutes and employee engagement surveys. OSA analyzed key data, including budget expansion requests, wait times, transaction volumes, ZIP code transaction data, service time data, and dwell time data, to assess operational efficiency and service delivery.

Auditors and specialists also engaged external experts from the Institute for Transportation Research and Education, the Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNC-Greensboro, and the UNC School of Government.

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