Line Stretches Through Street At Reopened Eatontown MVC

EATONTOWN, NJ — If you've been waiting months to go to New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission facilities, consider waiting a little longer. Photos and videos show lines stretching to the street in Eatontown.

New Jersey's MVC centers reopened Tuesday following months of closures related to the coronavirus. Video from Brian Thompson of NBC New York showed cars lined up in the street to get to the Eatontown MVC — a familiar scene around the state Tuesday.

Each MVC has opened as either a vehicle center (no license transactions) or a licensing center (no registration transactions). Eatontown's is a licensing center.

The changes were designed to help manage crowd flow.

“We look forward to reopening as a reimagined MVC that will allow us to streamline services and keep crowds down,’’ Chief Administrator Sue Fulton said Thursday in a statement. “Our first priority is the health and safety of our employees and our customers."

But MVC facilities across the state have faced similar issues Tuesday, including mile-long lines, three-hour wait times and overall confusion. Read more: Three-Hour Waits, Mile-Long Lines As NJ's MVC Reopens Tuesday

Fulton made the following statement Tuesday:

“As we reopen today, MVC agencies are experiencing extraordinarily high customer volumes. In anticipation of long lines due to social distancing restrictions, Agency management personnel were pre-deployed to our busiest agencies, beginning at 6:00 AM, two hours before our start time. Additionally, all of our senior staff in operations are deployed to agencies to help process transactions. While we understand the frustration of our customers in this extremely challenging and difficult time, our employees are doing the best they can to keep everyone safe and work as efficiently as possible.

"Our text notification systems are working as planned, and we remind everyone that expiration dates were extended. We ask everyone to check NJMVC.gov before you go to an agency, as some customers are in line for transactions that can be done online.”

The state planned for vehicle and licensing centers to open on June 29 along with road tests and inspections, but delayed the opening to Tuesday because of coronavirus concerns.

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Weekly cleanings of the facilities will continue throughout July, meaning MVC centers will be closed on Mondays.

A text notification system was originally planned to alert drivers when it was their turn in line, but the state announced more testing was needed, and the system wasn't ready for the July 7 reopening.

Read more: NJ Coronavirus, Reopen Updates: Here's What You Need To Know

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