‘Frozen in time’: North Carolina auditor releases new DMV audits

CHARLOTTE — A 400-page report details the “deteriorating service quality” at DMVs in North Carolina.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Preliminary DMV audit findings emphasize insufficient staffing, plans to raise pay

People have been waiting in long lines for hours and appointments are scarce just to get a new ID. The goal of the report is to prevent these negative experiences.

To ensure better service for customers, the state auditor recommended for the DMV to partner with an industry expert to improve the customer experience. Despite 46 projects at a cost of $42 million in just the last decade, “outside experts determined the current DMV mainframe systems are still outdated and overdue for replacement.”

Aubrey Wheeler is just one of 120 people a day who are moving to the Charlotte area and getting introduced to the state’s DMV. He’s from Georgia and is trying to get his license in North Carolina. He said he got to the DMV at 7:00 a.m. Channel 9 caught him leaving at 3:30 p.m.

“I waited all day, came and went,” Wheeler said. “I think this is my third time here today, and still leaving here without a license, so it’s unfortunate. I think they’re understaffed.”

Two new audits of the North Carolina DMV by the state auditor found those offices are “severely” understaffed. North Carolina’s population has grown nearly 30% in the last 20 years (about 2.5 million people), but the DMV only increased the number of driver’s license examiners by 10%. Of the 710 positions that do exist for examiners, only 505 are filled.

“I just tried to walk in here, and I’m surprised they let me do it, right away,” said Malia Cruz, a DMV customer. “Yeah, I just walked in.”

The audit found that the average wait time is one hour and 15 minutes, which is up 15% since 2019. One in seven visits exceeded two and a half hours, an 80% increase in that timeframe.

“Over the past five years, customer experience has been measurably declining,” said State Auditor Dave Boliek.

The employee experience has diminished as well.

The state auditor recommended the following five changes to ensure better service at North Carolina DMVs:

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.

DMV audit quick facts:

Two different audits were done by the state auditor, one on IT, one on performance.
“What we found is that IT modernization efforts at the DMV have not produced meaningful customer service improvements.”
Since 2014, despite 46 projects at a cost of $42 million, “outside experts determined the current DMV mainframe systems are outdated and overdue for replacement.”
“These legacy systems support all operations...but they keep the DMV operationally frozen in time”
Looked at DMV operations up through April 22, 2025
Big problem -- DMV is part of DOT, but should be independent.
DMV generates 30% of DOT’s overall revenue, but accounts for only 2.8% 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.
DOT left out DMV customer satisfaction data in its performance report.

The state auditor listed out specific timelines for implementing recommendations and promised that his “team will be following up to check on” them.

You can see the DMV performance audit at this link.

See the DMV IT Systems audit at this link.

VIDEO: NC DMV expands all-day walk-ins to help customers avoid summer heat