CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On Tuesday, there was another headache for people at the driver licenses offices of the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. For the second time in a week, a technical outage caused a disruption to services at those NC DMV offices.
An outage Tuesday with a third-party vendor that uploads and processes pictures for new driver licenses and identity cards caused the disruption to service, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
By 10 a.m. Tuesday, the technical outage was restored and systems were back up and running. However this is the second incident in the last week that has caused issues with the DMV. Last Thursday, an outage within a different system caused a two-and-half hour outage at those same DMV offices.
DMV officials said there are some issues that are out of their control. Officials are working to ensure people get the service they need in a timely manner. Still, some customers say it's not enough to combat common DMV frustrations.
“It'll be a couple of employees and a room full of people," Medhane Haile, a DMV customer, said. "They definitely need help."
During Tuesday's morning outage, all DMV drivers license offices were not able to issue licenses, state-issued ID cards, or REAL ID cards.
“We're constantly trying to modernize our systems and harden our systems to head some of these things off where we can," Marty Homan, the DMV communications manager for NCDOT, explained.
Homan said over the last few years, the NC DMV has made changes intended to improve their customer service. Examples include hiring more than 250 employees. Despite the hires, officials need to combat the increasing population as more people move to North Carolina.
“North Carolina is an attractive state," Homan said. "People want to move here. Each one of those persons who wants to move here, their first transaction needs to be in-person and so that's really kind of straining our offices."
Those newcomers include Marvin Fairley, who just moved to Charlotte from Mississippi. He said he's been to the DMV twice over the last few months but he shows up with patience.
Patience is needed. Appointments are booked about 90 days into the future.
Homan said they're trying to make things easier for customers but sometimes they need state leaders to approve more funding.
“Our vacancy rate is way down but there just aren’t enough positions," Homan said. "So we need more positions and more offices to meet the need. So we’re working with our partners at the legislature."
Still, the progress is slow-moving.
“They need to work on improving a lot of things," Haile said.
If you missed your appointment on Tuesday morning because of the technical outage, officials recommend you call their hotline at 919-715-7000 to get rescheduled.
During the busy summer months, the NC DMV anticipates opening some offices on Saturdays to help with the demand.
Contact Lexi Wilson at lwilson@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.