For decades, Connecticut drivers dreaded going to the state Department of Motor Vehicles for fear of long lines and even longer delays.
Now, for the first time, they will have the ability to renew their licenses online from the comfort of their own home — without ever setting foot in a DMV office.
Gov. Ned Lamont made the announcement Wednesday that the state had completed a pilot program and is ready to roll out the plan for drivers as their licenses expire. They will no longer need to drive to a DMV or AAA office to get their picture taken, and the same picture will be used from their current license.
Without widespread advertising to the general public, more than 20,000 drivers whose licenses expired within the past 45 days have already renewed their licenses online, officials said. Moving forward, the state will be notifying all drivers whose licenses are nearing expiration of the new online option, providing them with a unique code to log on and renew their license.
Tony Guerrera, the deputy motor vehicles commissioner and a former state legislator, told reporters that drivers now can complete their transactions “without getting out of bed” or waiting in line.
“It wasn’t too long ago when you may have had to take time off from work, find a babysitter or leave your family to spend time at DMV to ensure that you got your transaction completed in the right way,” he said. “If today you can sit at your kitchen table with your mobile phone and order anything from Amazon in a simple way, it’s not too much to ask our government to respond in a similar way. Today, we can say that we really made historic and significant change for the convenience, reliability and accurate transactions for Connecticut consumers.”
While drivers are online with the DMV, they can also register to vote, change their political party registration and sign up to be an organ donor at the same time. Payments are made by credit or debit card, and drivers can print out a receipt from their computer or have the information texted to their phone.
The actual license would then arrive in the driver’s mail within 20 days.
The program is completely voluntary. People who do not have a computer and do not use email can still visit an office.
Lamont’s team has been working on technological improvements to state government since he took office two years ago. The governor hired Sibongile “Bongi” Magubane of Hartford as the new DMV commissioner after she had a high-level career in technology at Aetna. Another key player was state Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe, a former IBM Corp. executive who has also spent his career in technology.
Geballe noted that some drivers involved in the DMV pilot program initially balked at the idea, convinced that it was a scam.
“They hadn’t heard anything about it,” he said. “They said, ‘Wait a minute. I can’t renew my driver’s license online. This must be fake.’ So, now that we’re confirming to the general public that this is real, I’m sure we’ll see the rates [of participation] go up.”
Among all state agencies, the DMV has been known for having major computer problems. In August 2015 during then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration, the DMV shut down entirely to install a new computer system. But after reopening, customers complained they often waited five to seven hours for service, and the lines snaked out the door at all motor vehicle locations. Malloy told customers at the time to avoid the DMV for a few weeks until the problems were resolved.
Lamont has maintained that the DMV is “the face of state government” as the most prominent agency that virtually all adults have interactions with. From the start of the administration, he said the agency was too bureaucratic and operating on 20th-century ideas in the 21st century. Multiple times during his 2018 election campaign, Lamont brought up widespread problems at the DMV and repeated the same line: “You walk into DMV as a Democrat, you leave as a Republican.”
On Wednesday, Lamont said, “I’ve been through a few campaigns now, and everyone loves to beat up on the DMV.”
Guerrera said it is a new day at the longtime motor vehicles headquarters in Wethersfield.
“DMV’s former service delivery model was centered on an in-person, brick-and-mortar model,” he said. “Governor Lamont’s effort to move our residents online instead of in-line has accelerated our plans to make sure that government, particularly the DMV, provides a platform for quick and easy online transactions.”
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.
