Service outage reported at six NC DMV offices

The agency said in a written statement that it is working with the state Department of Information Technology to determine the issue and resolve it.

DMV chief promises changes to improve service, cut wait times

The issue was affecting half a dozen DMV offices, including:

On Wednesday, DMV Commissioner Torre Jessup addressed the ​​​​​​the North Carolina Board of Transportation and admitted that long customer lines were a problem, but he said wait times for services at the statewide office are trending down.

"August was a rough month for those [DMV] employees," he told the board.

In addition to wait times at offices that stretched into hours, the agency also had problems with a vendor that produced hundreds of driver's licenses with errors and was publicly criticized for an invitation-only office for state employees trying to get their REAL IDs.

​Processing REAL ID requests continues to slow down DMV operations, Jessup said, adding that a summer spike in student drivers seeking licenses or permits, internet outages and absent employees – more than a quarter of license examiners are on family leave, workers compensation or short-term disability – made things worse.

One way the DMV is responding is by bringing back express lines for services that don't take long, he said. The agency did away with express lines early this year after customers complained that they weren't being served in order, but he said the change slowed things down.

The agency also is trying to get better information on how long people are waiting in line before they even get to take a number at a DMV office. The current system doesn't track that.