MNLARS Glitches Still Impacting Titles, License Tab Renewals

When you work at a DMV, every day is a busy day.

“We are busy at lunch no matter what day it is,” says Meagan Weber, motor vehicle supervisor at the Golden Valley Driver and Vehicle Services office inside city hall.

Weber says staff tries to get people in and out of their office in about 20 minutes, but that changed last summer when the new software system for Minnesota License and Registration System (MNLARS) rolled out.

“It increased our workload a lot,” explains Weber. “We are doing data entry when the customer is at the counter.”

The software system had glitches and an overwhelmed support network that made wait times stretch to an hour or longer.

“I don’t think anyone expected it to be like it was,” says Weber, who remembers people in lines stretched down the hall and sometimes sitting on the floor. “We’d rather get to the point that when a customer comes in, we can just help them.”

More than six months after the system was implemented, some of the problems have been fixed. But numbers show fewer completed transactions and more staff overtime, which means the office has lost money since the new software rolled out. Golden Valley joined other deputy registrars in asking for additional maintenance to the system as well as possible reimbursement for overtime costs.

“We came up with $4,775 in overtime and that did not include our salaried person down there either,” says Susan Virnig, finance director for the city of Golden Valley who helped prepare the resolution. “We’re all in this together. It’s a package where everything works together and we are looking forward to improvements.”

In the meantime, the state legislature asks Minnesotans to report problems encountered because of delays at the DMV to www.house.leg.state.mn.us/DMV/Comment. Staff say if you want to get through with business in the quickest manner possible at the DMV, make sure you have all of your insurance information handy plus pack a little extra patience too.