Driver Services makes getting a license easier

Yes, that’s right — “customer service award” and DMV in the same sentence. It sounds like something from the Bizarro World. Granted, the award came from something called the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. But Driver Services has made strides, and people are noticing.

“I anticipated a couple hours,” said Jeanette Carson, who was able to replace a stolen license in 45 minutes. “It was very businesslike. I remember last time, it was like two or three hours sitting there.”

Reorganized in 2005 to focus on only driver’s licenses, the agency says it tries to treat motorists like customers, not supplicants, and has cut average wait times to about 11 minutes from the 20-plus minutes it was five years ago. (DDS’s clock starts ticking only after patrons show the proper paperwork to an initial examiner and get a waiting ticket, so overall waits generally are longer than those cited by the department.)

Improvements to the system got the average wait time down into the eight-minute range in 2008, but budget cutbacks and fewer examiners have caused it to rise again this year.

In an effort to shorten that time, DDS in the upcoming weeks will start rolling out a streamlined “one-stop shopping” procedure. In this new process, license examiners at each station will be more versed in all services, and in most cases be able to serve customers at a single station, including shooting their photographs. The department will also start issuing a newly designed, harder-to-copy driver’s license.

“We’re really proud of changing the branding of what people think when visiting our centers,” said DDS Commissioner Greg Dozier, sounding like a marketing guy. “We’re changing out the foundational system.”

Dozier was hired in 2005 when the Department of Motor Vehicle Safety, created just four years earlier by Gov. Roy Barnes, was dismantled by his successor, Gov. Sonny Perdue, and its duties spread among four agencies. DDS was a new creation.

“The governor’s vision was to take away all the things that pull and tug and give [the new agency] a single focus and accountability,” said Dozier.

Rep. Alan Powell (D-Hartwell), a critic of that breakup, said Perdue simply benefited from an earlier administration’s work.

“It was easy enough for Perdue to say, ‘We’ll get the times down.’ The ball was already rolling,” said Powell. “Of course he took credit.”

‘It’s always busy’

The 14,000-square-foot center in Norcross, opened in 2002 and often the state’s busiest, is in the midst of changing over to the new “one-stop” system. On a recent Tuesday, its busiest day of the week, the staff was serving the public with one arm tied behind its back. Half the 20 examiner windows were closed because new camera-ready kiosks were being installed and some workers were out being trained.

About 20 people often queued at the entrance waiting to be served at the information booth. Another 40 or so people were sprinkled through out the 300 folding chairs listening to ’80s music being piped in. Lines often formed at the photo station.

“It’s busy; it’s always busy,” said Marsha Hylton, a 29-year-old examiner with a perpetual smile and about 18 months on the job.

Hylton is one of the facility’s top examiners each month, handling 1,238 customers in July, or an average of 53 each working day. Hylton admits she’s competitive, but said there’s an esprit de corps at the facility, which served 2,046 people last week.

The requests for services are wide-ranging: License renewals, lost licenses, reinstatements, driving tests, out-of-state transfers, address changes, name changes. And the job is often made more difficult because so many customers are foreign born, meaning they have issues with language or documentation.

Still, a positive attitude and patience are universal.

“People are surprised when you’re smiling,” said Hylton, who came from a telephone survey job where getting hung up on was common. “When you’re smiling, it helps defuse people. People always say they thought they’d be here longer.”

A tough job

But not everyone leaves happy.

Greg Buckland was with his son, Brad, getting him a learner’s permit and frustrated by the wait of an hour and 45 minutes.

“We counted that we waited five or six times,” he said. First there was the information desk, then a wait for an examiner, then the driving test, then waiting for results, then taking a photo and then waiting for the permit.

“It’s a horribly inefficient process,” he said.

Jeffery Parker, the new district manager, acknowledged things don’t always go smoothly, but said they have steadily improved.

Parker, 31, started as a driver’s license examiner 12 years ago, when the Georgia State Patrol oversaw the process. It was there he developed a thick skin.

“When we got to work, we were greeted by a mob. At 9 o’clock you used to see 200 people in line,” said Parker, who was in Norcross last week to train workers on the new system. “We’d tell customers you might not get waited on by 5.

“From the time you got there until you left, you were waiting on customers,” he recalled. His survival strategy was simple: “Don’t let them see fear in your eyes,” he said. “If you have 60 people out there and they see that you let things bother you, they’ll push your buttons.”

Workers today are afforded better training, especially in customer service, where they have role-playing scenarios and coaching, he said. Also, workers have more modern technology and better-designed facilities at their command.

Still, it’s a demanding job with relatively low pay ($21,000 to start) and high turnover (80 percent of examiners have less than five years’ experience).

Push to mail, e-mail

The department also has pushed to have drivers stay out of the service centers. Licenses are issued for five and even 10 years (instead of four) and drivers are urged to obtain their licenses by Internet and mail.

Almost 238,000 renewed their licenses by mail in fiscal 2008, and nearly 172,000 did so online, more than double the number of three years earlier. Still, two-thirds of those getting renewals — more than 800,000 people each of the last three years — visit service centers. Slightly more than 3 million have come to 64 service centers each of the past three years,

Reasons vary as to why motorists are insistent on the personal touch. Some DDS people say people procrastinate and don’t have time to wait for their license to be mailed out, as happens when applying by Internet or mail. Many customers like the security of actually walking out of the center with a new license.

Some just want a new photo. The remade DDS hopes they will be smiling.

Speeding up, slowing down

Figures showing changes in amounts and time required for services at the Department of Driver Services:

Average wait time in fiscal 2005: 20 minutes

Average wait time in fiscal 2008: 8 minutes

Average wait time so far in 2009: 11 minutes