DMV tried to cut wait times. It didn’t work.
Progress faltered after nearly reaching goal
When Gov. Scott Walker was running for a second term in September 2014, his administration created two budget goals aimed at getting Wisconsin drivers faster service at the DMV.
The state wanted the Division of Motor Vehicles to answer at least 80 percent of its phone calls within 2 minutes and serve at least 80 percent of customers at DMV centers within 20 minutes.
The effort started on the right track, but since then it’s been a fiasco.
The DMV nearly reached its phone goal in 2015, then fell at least 13 percentage points short of the mark in each of the next three years. Callers now wait at least 2 minutes for someone to pick up even more often than they did in 2014.
Similarly, customers who went to Wisconsin’s 91 DMV centers received service faster in 2015 but in each year since, they are more often waiting longer. The breadth of delays this year put the DMV below its goal for two consecutive quarters — for the first time since 2014.
The results are outlined in budget documents that state transportation officials submitted to Walker’s administration in 2016 and this year. Transportation officials also publish figures tracking DMV wait times on their website.
The state has struggled to cut wait times even though the DMV has received fewer calls lately and employees are working more quickly as they serve customers, according to state figures. Consider two snapshots from one month this year:
❚ The DMV received about 4,000 calls a day in June, one of its lowest monthly volumes in recent years. Still, it responded to just 69 percent of those calls within 2 minutes — 11 percentage points below the goal.
❚ Also in June, DMV workers posted one of their fastest months in recent years for time spent with customers at service centers. But it was also one of their worst months for wait times. About one in every four customers waited more than 20 minutes.
Department of Transportation spokesman Christian Schneider said more in-person visits have contributed to increased wait times. About 1.6 million visitors have sought help at DMV centers so far this year, about 3.5 percent more than the same period last year.
Schneider also said some DMV staff were reassigned a few years ago — when wait times were better — to help build a digital scanning system aimed at cutting wait times for new vehicle titles from 30 to 14 days.
“DMV’s ultimate goal is to encourage more use of its online services, where there is no wait time at all,” he said. “The department has been aggressively promoting its eNotify service, which sends email and text reminders for renewals.”
DMV wait times haven’t gained recent attention in public debate among state lawmakers. Walker and his election opponent this year, state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, have been clashing over other transportation issues such as road conditions and gas taxes.
Whoever wins the gubernatorial election on Nov. 6 will propose a state budget to legislators in early 2019.