Granville County has been without a license plate agency for a few months now, but DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin says the process is underway to have an office open again soon.
Goodwin spoke with John C. Rose Wednesday morning on TownTalk and provided an update on this and other topics, from the Real ID program and DMV kiosks to the increased use of electric vehicles in the state.
The DMV office where folks get their driver’s licenses are state agencies, staffed with state employees, Goodwin explained. But the license plate agencies – LPAs – are operated by private contractors with state oversight.
“Occasionally, we’ll have a license plate agency close,” he said, usually because the contract is up and isn’t renewed for one reason or another.
Goodwin said the state has received applications and in currently in the process of choosing a new contractor.
Conducting business online is a popular way to avoid the wait times and sometimes long lines for anyone who needs to transact their business in person. Visit www.myncdmv.gov to renew driver licenses, renew plates and more.
But Goodwin said North Carolina is exploring placing service kiosks that can be accessed any time of the day for those who don’t want to use the online services.
“We’ve decided to do what a few other states are doing,” Goodwin said, in exploring the use of kiosks – standup machines that can provide certain DMV services to the public.
“Be on the lookout for that,” he said, adding that about 20 will be rolled out in grocery stores and other public locations in the near future to test the public’s interest in using them.
Smartphones are figuring into the world of DMV, too.
Some states are implementing mobile driver licenses as a way to cut down on identity theft. North Carolina is exploring that idea, too, he said.
As for the Real ID, Goodwin said “folks on the federal level decided it’d be best that the deadline be pushed back two years…which gives folks more time to become compliant.”
It’s an idea that came about as a result of the 911 attacks, but it is not a requirement.
A gold star in the upper right corner of the driver license certifies that the person has provided the necessary documents that verify identification.
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As for the increased use of electric vehicles in the state, Goodwin said it really boils down to two things: customer demand and what the automobile industry decides to provide consumers.
More EVs means more charging stations as well, and Goodwin said he would anticipate more charging stations popping up.
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