AAA no longer an option for drivers license renewal

DMV said no agreement reached to continue services in New Haven County

Drivers in New Haven and Fairfield counties no longer have the option of using their local AAA offices to renew their driver licenses as an alternative to long lines at Department of Motor Vehicle branch offices.

The motor club has eight offices in Branford, Danbury, Fairfield, Hamden, Milford, Norwalk, Stamford and Waterbury. Those offices are no longer doing license renewals for either members - or non-members.

DMV said it could not reach an agreement with the AAA franchise serving Fairfield and New Haven counties to continue licensing and ID card renewal services after Dec. 31, 2016.

The agency had been in talks with this franchise after it notified DMV it would stop serving the general public and serve members only beginning in 2017. The impasse was announced by DMV Commissioner Michael Bzdyra.

“The Department’s responsibility is first and foremost to the general public. We need to maintain service levels while controlling costs,” Bzdyra said. “As such, we cannot subsidize a private organization’s provision of DMV services if that organization is not willing to find ways to serve the general public.”

“We hope this AAA franchise will re-consider our proposals, which we feel were fair and workable. In light of this development, we will begin exploring other avenues to maintain access to services for the people of Connecticut,” continued Bzdyra.

The franchise, known as AAA Northeast, provided DMV licensing and ID card renewal services to the entire general public, but had sought to offer them only to its paying members beginning in January. The franchise started in 2001 offering these services to the general public.

“Contract negotiations with the state just didn’t work out,” Fran Mayko, AAA Northeast’s spokeswoman on Thursday, said. “We made a final offer and despite our best efforts we couldn’t get a deal done.”

Mayko said one of the biggest sticking points with AAA Northeast is that company executives believe that the licensing program is a benefit that should be for members of AAA only, and not for anyone who walks into an AAA Northeast office.

“We did 160,000 transactions last year,” said Mayko, stating the licensing responsibility had become too much of a work burden for the costs and time involved for AAA Northeast.