Many Rhode Islanders have squandered hours of their lives sitting on a bench at the Division of Motor Vehicles, waiting to perform a simple task such as renewing a driver"s license. At such moments, many thoughts may pass through their minds. Many are unprintable. But one obvious thought is: Why can"t I do this online?
Many of the candidates for governor vowed to fix the DMV, and Chafee announced a plan "to utilize modern information technologies to make government services easier to use, government operations more transparent, and government more efficient overall.” As part of that plan, he said, "I will upgrade RI.gov to ensure that citizens can take maximum advantage of the public services they pay tax dollars to fund. The upgrade will include putting online government services that currently require a trip to state offices, such as making the DMV appointments and renewing drivers" licenses.”
After seven months of the Chafee administration, Rhode Islanders still cannot renew driver"s licenses online.
But the DMV has made upgrades to its online services, according to Lisa S. Holley, the DMV"s interim administrator. For example, long-distance truckers now can get permits online, and she just approved plans that in a few weeks will allow people to register leased vehicles online for the first time.
Also, the state has upgraded RI.gov by, for example, allowing online license renewals for engineers, landscape architects and land surveyors, Chafee spokeswoman Christine Hunsinger said. And the administration is moving ahead with plans that will allow drivers to renew their licenses online by the end of this year, she said.
Holley said online license renewals are a major priority for her and for Chafee. With good reason. The state has some 755,000 licensed drivers, and about 158,000 of them will renew their licenses this year. Online license renewals would save at least half those people a trip to the DMV, she said, using a conservative estimate recognizing that some people would still need to come to the DMV for various reasons, such as eye tests. "As soon as we get this up and running, I think it will make a real big impact on wait times,” she said.
But first, RI.gov -- which is the online portal vendor and not a state website -- must work out a system of communicating via computer with L-1 Identity Solutions, the vendor that provides licenses to drivers, Holley said.
"We are ready to roll. We are just waiting on the vendors to work out the interfaces between the two vendors,” she said. "My hope is that within eight weeks we are live. That"s my hope, but I"ve learned I have a more aggressive schedule than programmers and IT people do.”
The DMV will need to take up to $150,000 from its budget to make that happen, Holley said. The DMV already has that money in its operating budget, Hunsinger said.
What about Chafee"s idea of making DMV appointments online? Holley said, "We plan to do that for complex transactions” at some point. But, she said, "the big priority is online licensing” because that will do more to cut wait times.
Hunsinger said, "We have timelines in place, and we expect to meet those. We hope to have online license renewals up and running by Christmas.”
If he doesn"t deliver online license renewals by Christmas, Chafee will deserve a lump of coal in his stocking. In the meantime, we"ll rate this promise as "In the Works.”
