DMV to start reservation system rollout in Oct.

CRANSTON – Starting Oct. 5 the R.I. Divison of Motor Vehicles will institute a limited customer reservation program for its Adjudication Office in Cranston, the department announced Friday. The reservation system will be mandatory and the reservation portal will go live Thursday Sept. 28.

The DMV plans an eventual further rollout to the rest of its systems, but R.I. Department of Revenue Public Information Officer Paul Grimaldi said the reservation system will not be mandatory for all offices.

Grimaldi also said the DMV is already planning on rolling out the reservation system to another office – possibly in January – but said which department is still to be determined.

The DMV instituted a temporary reservation system during the launch of its computer system this summer. Grimaldi said it helped the department gauge how the system could be used, what was beneficial or what could go wrong. He added that some customers created counterfeit reservations in order to skip the line, something the agency did not anticipate.

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He also said that the launch of the program in Cranston is no coincidence, as it will allow the department’s tech team, legal staff and senior officials to monitor the success and failures of the reservations system more closely.

In a letter distributed publicly, DMV administrator Walter R. Craddock said that reservations won’t fix long lines at the DMV alone, and supported expanding the use of the DMV’s online services to more customers.

“We realize that the only way to reduce wait times is to reduce the number of people who come to the DMV, increase service staff or a combination of both,” said Craddock. “We have more customer service representatives in training now, and we hope to get funding in the next budget cycle to hire more line employees. We are hopeful, that soon enough, Rhode Islanders will recognize in the DMV the improvements that they have long sought.”

Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor.