The ongoing effort to improve customer service at North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles got a new outline on Monday.
An audit from the office of North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek gave new context to the department's challenges toward providing timely service to customers at driver's license offices, a topic WRAL News has covered extensively.
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During a news conference on Monday, Boliek provided findings from a new review of the division’s operations. In a 435-page report released Monday, his office offered recommendations on how to make the DMV more efficient and how to improve its processes through upgrading what Boliek called “a lack of detailed and measurably relevant metrics at the DMV."
Never-ending lines outside buildings and outdated technology are two things Boliek said aren’t acceptable in a state with a booming population and growing economy.
"This office has led the effort in shining a light and putting an emphasis on the fact that our DMV needs reform and action needs to be taken," he said.
“DOT and DMV acknowledge the need for operational improvements within DMV to enhance the quality and accessibility of our services,” Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins and DMV Commissioner Paul Tine wrote in a response letter to Boliek. “We are committed to addressing the findings of the audit and look forward to continued collaboration with the governor, the state auditor, and the North Carolina General Assembly to implement meaningful changes.”
The DMV is a division of the state Department of Transportation, which answers to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.
The governor’s office thanked Boliek for the review and praised Tine’s ongoing efforts to improve the division. Stein’s office said it planned to work with the DOT, DMV, and the auditor’s office to reduce wait times and deliver better customer service.
“We know that with the right leadership and follow-through, we will get results — getting people out of lines and empowering our hard-working DMV employees,” a Stein spokesperson said.
The review was a campaign promise by Boliek, who in January became the first Republican in the role in more than 15 years. Conducted by about 20 auditors, the performance audit released Monday goes over the consistent decline in customer and employee experience. It expands on preliminary findings released in June.
“As part of the audit our team fanned out across the state of North Carolina and engaged [employees] in driver's license offices across the state," Boliek said. “And guess what? They had some great ideas, they really know what they’re doing at the ground level and they have some fantastic ideas that we believe can help every single North Carolinian and help the DMV become more efficient.”
The auditor's office found the DMV has had a history of:
• Lacking a strategic voice in decision-making
• Lacking authority to control its own budget
• Lacking sufficient performance data to guide operations
• Being excluded from key process modernization initiatives
Findings show a wide disparity in the population growth and staffing within the DMV, as the demand for services is too great for the employee base.
"As North Carolina’s population has steadily increased over the past 15 years, the number of DMV examiner positions did not grow at the same rate," the report said. "The widening gap highlights how examiner staffing has not kept pace with rising service demand, contributing to longer wait times and persistent service challenges across the state."
The report shows that "over the past 15 years, North Carolina’s population increased by 2.5 million people (29%). However, the number of driver license examiner positions increased by only 52 positions (10%), from 516 to 568."
NCDMV leadership reports that some staff members arrive at offices as early as 4 or 5 a.m., hours ahead of opening. On Monday, customers were already lining up as early as 5 a.m. at the DMV office on Avent Ferry Road in Raleigh. Boliek said WRAL News’ reporting on the subject was proof the state needed to improve DMV operations.
Data collected by DMV on wait times showed the statewide customer wait time was 27 minutes. The audit says that the methodology only logs the customer's wait time from check-in to being served and did not reflect the total time that customers spent waiting at offices.
"We found that statewide average customer service visits actually exceeded 1 hour and 15 minutes, which is up 15.4% from 2019," Boliek said. "We also found that 13.8% of customer visits exceeded 2.5 hours in 2025, which is a 79% increase statewide."
Those figures don't include time spent waiting outside the office and only begin when individuals check in.
The DMV's response says the department will include medium- and long-term customer experience initiatives in the strategic plan by Dec. 1, 2025, and start to implement those initiatives by July 1, 2026. Some of those initiatives include digitizing paper forms, expanding online services and payment options and improving accuracy for wait times and enabling real-time capacity management.
Some initiatives have already begun.
“We think this planning needs to happen within six months,” Boliek said. “It’s time to get going. We’ve got to get moving.”
The DMV generates approximately 30% of the Department of Transportation’s total revenue and accounts for less than 3% of the department’s expenditures. The DOT decides when the DMV’s budget requests advance for consideration. Part of the report includes that the DMV requested a total of 130 new staff positions from 2019 to 2025, but just 40 positions were actually included in the DOT's budget requests.
"I can't stress enough, fixing the DMV is going to take buy-in from all levels of the government," Boliek said. "It's not going to happen tomorrow, it's not going to happen next month, but it can happen quick."
A letter penned by Tine and Hopkins responded to the report. Tine took over in May in replacement of Wayne Goodwin.
"Our shared goal is to deliver efficient, customer-focused services that meet the needs of North Carolina's residents and businesses, and we are eager to build on this report to drive progress and innovation," Hopkins and Tine said in their response letter.
The DMV has attempted to find other ways to serve customers, including installing self-service kiosks at select Harris Teeter grocery stores in 2024. The agency moved its headquarters to Rocky Mount in 2020, with some employees not following their jobs.
Erin Van Dorn of Holly Springs said at Boliek's news conference it took her and her teenage son four trips to the DMV — the last time 130 miles away in Mount Airy — to obtain his license. Information technology and staffing shortages were to blame.
“My son has missed a total of four days of school,” Van Horn said. “It’s just been a very big ordeal for us.”
The audit said there were 160 vacant license examiner positions as of April in North Carolina, the ninth-most populated state according to the 2020 census. Boliek's staff heard DMV employee complaints about burnout, security and low pay — average examiner position salaries were well below $50,000 last year.
“We know that with the right leadership and follow-through, we will get results -– getting people out of lines and empowering our hard-working DMV employees," Stein spokesperson Morgan Hopkins said.
The GOP-controlled General Assembly could still attempt to implement the change.
A stopgap budget measure on Stein’s desk provides funds to hire over 60 license examiners. And a new state law has established a temporary moratorium on renewing standard licenses, allowing them to remain valid within North Carolina for up to two years beyond the expiration date.
Multi-pronged probe
The state auditor examines programs, municipalities, state agencies and universities, among others, to ensure resources are being used efficiently. It also seeks to ensure that all corners of state government are meeting performance expectations, using proper financial controls and complying with state and federal regulations.
The audit released Monday was part of a multi-pronged “floor-to-ceiling” probe that Boliek launched in February. Boliek told WRAL in February that his office’s review would consist of at least five parts, which would be released in a series of reports, with plans to compile them into an anthology that includes recommendations for the department and lawmakers.
Lawmakers have also focused on improvements at the NCDMV in recent months. Last year, Senate and House lawmakers grilled Goodwin, who led the NCDMV at the time, in multiple hearings as the division faced mounting delays in issuing driver licenses and identification cards.
Goodwin attempted to modernize the NCDMV by opening some offices on Saturdays, pushing for electronic driver’s licenses that could be stored on smartphones, more online renewals, and installing self-service kiosks at grocery stores around the state to let people handle some basic NCDMV tasks without needing to go to a NCDMV office.
Despite those efforts, complaints mounted. Concerns over wait times and staffing have also caused some lawmakers to push for privatizing more of NCDMV functions.
While on the campaign trail, Boliek frequently pledged to audit the division, saying he regularly heard constituents’ horror stories of long wait times or poor service.