State Auditor Dave Boliek has recommended exploring splitting the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles from the N.C. Department of Transportation, one of the results of a pair of audits published Monday.
Wait times at state DMV offices average an hour and 15 minutes, an increase of about 15 percent since 2019, the audit found. And morale at the agency is low, with 43 percent of staff harboring a negative view of agency leadership.
“Our DMV needs reform and action needs to be taken,” Boliek said during a Monday press conference.
The auditor's office released a performance audit of DMV at the same time it released a separate audit of the agency's information technology modernization effort. Steps Boliek's team recommended include developing an independent strategic plan for the agency; conducting a staffing analysis to adjust pay and hire in places where there are shortages; and partnering with private driving schools to allow them to administer road tests instead of pulling a state examiner away from their other duties.
Leaders from the N.C. Department of Transportation and Division of Motor Vehicles agreed with most of Boliek's recommendations. But in a response letter, DMV Commissioner Paul Tine and DOT Secretary Joey Hopkins argued that separating DMV from DOT would have a number of negative impacts.
They warned, for instance, that DMV relies on DOT for positions like its general counsel, legislative affairs and human resources. Should DMV become an independent authority, they wrote, it would need to hire all of those positions and more, diverting resources from the agency's ongoing efforts to improve customer service at offices across the state.
"Even far smaller reorganizations, like the License & Theft Bureau's transfer to the State Highway Patrol, require expensive and time-consuming efforts to separate organization responsibilities and manage administrative issues," Hopkins and Tine wrote.
Part of Boliek's reasoning for recommending the shift is how DMV has fared in a budget process that requires its requests to first be vetted by DOT and then by the General Assembly.
Only 31% of DMV's budget requests have been included in the ask DOT sends over to the General Assembly, the audit found. And of six requests in the 2024-25 fiscal year, only part of one made it to the General Assembly, only to go unfunded.
"It is the most customer-front and -focused agency in state government. Accountability, in our team's opinion, demands that the commissioner answer directly to the governor. Because it's that important," Boliek said.
Tine and Hopkins argued there is a better approach to ensuring the agency receives the monetary support it needs.
They support shifting the division's funding model from one where it is supported by biennial General Assembly appropriations to one where a percentage of fees would be used to support the division.
Such an approach would help DMV keep up with the state's growth, they wrote, with revenue to hire additional examiners and open offices rising as the number of people seeking licenses does. Tine and Hopkins also argued the fees-based approach would help keep DMV from being lost amid other DOT funding priorities.
Staffing issues
Much of the audit focused on driver license examiners, the DMV employees who administer sign tests, check vision and evaluate drivers on road tests.
"You are the face of DMV and serve an important role in reducing wait times and improving customer service," says a recent job posting for an examiner.
The audit found that 160 of the agency’s 710 driver license examiner jobs are vacant, with shortages leading to ratios like a sole driver license examiner for Harnett County’s 56,639 residents.
Those vacancies include 63 of 568 permanent driver license examiner positions and 97 of 142 temporary positions.
Since January 2025, the audit said, DMV leadership reported that between 62 and 75 percent of the state's driver license examiners are available on any given day. DMV leaders attribute the shortage not only to the vacancies, but also to burnout, illness and other absences.
"This persistent shortage requires constant reassignment of staff and creates a reactive, inefficient operating environment," the audit said.
In the 2024-25 fiscal year, 13.8 percent of DMV visits lasted longer than 150 minutes. That's nearly double the 7.7 percent of visits lasting at least that long in the 2018-19 fiscal year.
Annual salaries for beginning driver license examiners typically range between $40,000 and $45,000.
The number of positions for which DOT can hire has lagged behind North Carolina's growth, the audit found. Over the last 15 years, the state has added 2.5 million people to grow by about 29 percent. DMV, meanwhile, has added 52 driver license examiners, growing its staff by about 10 percent.
"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 audit said.
Last week, the General Assembly passed a stop-gap spending bill that includes $1.2 million in recurring funds to hire 40 additional driver license examiners in the 2025-26 fiscal year, plus $3 million in recurring funds to hire 21 more examiners in 2026-27.
House Bill 125, the spending measure, is on Gov. Josh Stein's desk. Stein last week urged General Assembly leaders to pass a full budget instead of taking interim steps.
Boliek also advocated for higher pay for DMV's driver license examiners, a step that has long been discussed but has not yet received widespread political support.
"That should be the job people want, right? Because if we've got high-functioning, highly paid, appropriately paid DMV workers helping the people of North Carolina, we're going to have happy citizens who are going to be productive and the economy of North Carolina's still going to be number one in the nation," Boliek said.
Another problem, the audit found, was the impact of the General Assembly's directive that DMV leave its former headquarters on New Bern Avenue by October 1, 2020. That led to the agency relocating to Rocky Mount, which offered the least expensive lease of nine proposals, The News & Observer reported at the time.
"They lost a lot of experienced people that just weren't willing to move to Rocky Mount. So the DMV as a whole did experience a ramp up period where they had to bring in people to that particular location," Boliek said.
The move had other impacts, too, with the audit finding it corresponded with the agency no longer monitoring its progress toward a strategic plan it had generated in 2019.
What else did Boliek recommend?
Boliek outlined a number of ideas to improve DMV services during a Monday press conference.
For instance, Boliek said, there's no statutory change that's needed for DMV to let driving instructors administer the state's road test for first-time license seekers. Those instructors have typically already spent six hours in the car with a student before the test.
"When you take a math test in class, the teacher grades your test, right? We trust our teachers to grade the math test. There's no reason why we shouldn't trust the driver's license teachers to certify that the students have passed the basic minimum driving test," Boliek said.
Each test for a new driver takes at least 35 minutes and, Boliek said, the DMV is already working on implementing the change.
Another idea Boliek floated is a fast pass lane for a driver's license, with DMV working with a private vendor so people can pay a premium to guarantee a time slot for their license. That could start at license plate agencies that are already run by private contractors, he said, and would provide funds to implement other necessary changes at DMV.
"We have TSA PreCheck, we have toll roads, we charge a premium on all kinds of things and I think now is the time to explore that," Boliek said.
Boliek also suggested designating certain times, days or locations for specific services to increase efficiency. He used the example of a rural DMV office where examiners would solely work on REAL IDs and renewals from Monday through Wednesday, on first-time license tests on Thursday and on commercial licenses on Friday.
In areas where demand is especially strong, Boliek said, part of the solution could be pop-up DMV locations in large retail spaces that are currently sitting vacant. That would have the added benefit, Boliek said, of allowing people to wait indoors instead of sitting outside in heat or cold for hours while providing a boost to the local economy.
"I think the public wants to see that the state of North Carolina is doing something other than the same old way," Boliek said.
