New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner said on Thursday he knows there are still some glitches to be worked out with a recent major technology upgrade.
But at a news conference held at Utica’s DMV office Commissioner Mark Schroeder said those issues are being addressed.
He made a stop in Utica to chat with the Oneida and Madison County clerks, who have DMV offices as part of their operations. Schroeder noted that the technology upgrade earlier this year for the statewide DMV system was long overdue.
“We have legacy lines, data lines that date back to Governor Nelson Rockefeller, we’re talking about the 1960s,” Schroeder explained.
The commissioner said that he has been getting ongoing feedback from county clerks and DMV officials.
“The county clerks aren't wrong,” Schroeder said. “We know it was going to be a little bumpy, and what we're trying to do is work out the situations that are coming up, things that maybe we didn't foresee, these things that happened.”
Oneida County Clerk Mary Finegan said she appreciates the commissioner and other state officials listening to their concerns, but there still is work to be done.
“When it's fully integrated, it's going to be a better service for New York drivers everywhere," Finegan said. “But right now, we're still discovering some of the hiccups, discovering some of the things that fell through the cracks.”
Finegan would like to see the county clerks become even more involved in the next phase of the technology rollout.
“We would like to be more aware and integrated into that process,” said Finegan. “We are the end users. We feel we have firsthand knowledge of what's going on with the system.”
The DMV Commissioner said that the first part of the modernization project involved driver’s licenses and the next phase, in February of 2028, will deal with things like titles and registrations.
Madison County Clerk Michael Keville noted that some people who have moved to New York state from other states have had problems when they applied for a New York license.
His best advice?
“Come in early, so that you have time to deal with that out-of-state issue and get your license renewed in a timely manner,” Keville said.
