Report Shows Problems At MVC Sites, Getting NJ Driver's Licenses

A new report identifies a number of problems that exist at Motor Vehicle Commission agencies in New Jersey, and why getting your driver's license renewed and completing your vehicle registration may be more difficult than you realize.

The New Jersey Legislature’s Office of the State Auditor released the report on Tuesday, calling it an "audit" that raises some troubling questions involving customer service. The audit's data and information was compiled between July 1, 2016 to February 28, 2019.

The report said it found the MVC customer service operations could be more efficient, pointing to troubles in the agency's compliance unit and staffing.

There also have been problems with mobile units that are supposed to provide services closer to customers and the customer complaint process, the report said.

The MVC provided a response (see below).

Here are the main issues raised by the report:

• The MVC has not reviewed staffing levels for its 39 agencies since 2003. In addition, the MVC could not provide documentation of how the size of each agency’s staff was determined at that time. Optimal staffing levels could provide more effective and efficient customer service, the report said.
• Agency staff levels ranged from 17 to 47 in fiscal years 2017 and 2018. The audit noted significant variances with the average number of transactions (driver’s license, vehicle registration, and title) processed monthly per employee at each agency.
• The customer complaint process needs improvement. The MVC did not establish standard procedures over the complaint resolution process until November 2018.
• As a result, there was no process in place to adequately track complaints and monitor them for proper resolution prior to this time.
• The auditor selected a sample of 58 website complaints and 12 mail complaints forwarded between July 1, 2016 and August 30, 2018 for review. Based on the nature of the complaint, the auditors determined that 44 of the sampled website complaints and 7 of the sampled mail complaints merited a formal response. The review noted that Agency Services only followed up on 1 of the 51 applicable complaints.
• The mobile units have not been efficiently utilized for their primary intended purpose of bringing essential MVC services directly to motorists statewide.
• Standard operating procedures are needed to ensure the efficient use of the mobile units, which provide driver’s license renewal and duplicates, non-driver IDs, vehicle registration renewals and disabled placards.
• Since their original deployment, the mobile units have reported on a regular basis to the Edison and Rahway agencies to alleviate increases in customer volume resulting from the closing of the South Plainfield agency from May 13, 2017 through May 21, 2018.
• However, since the re-opening of the South Plainfield agency, the mobile units have continued to predominantly report to the Edison and Rahway agencies and have only conducted four scheduled events collectively as of February 26, 2019.
• One of these events was a publicity event held at the State House where only seven license and registration transactions were processed by one unit.
• From December 14, 2017 through October 31, 2018, each mobile unit could have operated 266 days. Of the possible 266 days, the two units were not deployed at all for 66 (25 perceent) and 62 (23 percent) days, respectively.

Here were other issues that were raised:

• The MVC Agency Compliance Unit is not being used in an efficient and effective manner. The Agency Compliance Unit (ACU) is responsible for monitoring the overall operations of the 39 MVC agencies.
• MVC personnel said the compliance officers could be more efficient if they maintained a regular presence and observed the business workflow at each agency.
• The ACU staff also has been reduced, consisting of 15 compliance officers in fiscal years 2017 and 2018 and 11 officers in fiscal year 2019.
• The review found that the MVC has not established standard operating procedures for the ACU and does not adequately monitor or utilize the work performed by the unit to potentially improve agency operations.
• Specifically, officers are required to complete a daily field report which provides a summary, in checklist form, of the specific compliance functions the officer reviewed that day. The report, which identifies over 20 compliance functions, is emailed by the officers to their immediate supervisor for review. However, there is no evidence (signature or initials) of supervisory approval on the reports.
• There were significant inconsistencies with the work completed by compliance officers who were employed the entire fiscal year. For example, one officer reviewed lien releases eight times during the year while another officer reviewed lien releases 93 times. In another example, one officer did not review ID documents at all during the year while another officer reviewed them 132 times. Examples similar to this were noted with 12 other compliance functions.
• The daily field report also includes a detailed notes section for officers to add specific comments about their workday. This is important since this is the only area on the daily field report where test results can be discussed
• The review found that the content provided in the daily field reports varied significantly from officer to officer. Some officers provided specific and detailed comments about their work while others provided minimal detail on what they accomplished for the day. One officer added the following generic statement to every completed report: “Assigned agency was moderately busy but had good work flow.”
• The MVC has no procedures in place to verify that each officer was actually present at his or her assigned agency on the required days in accordance with their weekly schedules.

Here is the MVC's response: