2017 sees MVD wait times cut in half compared to last year

PHOENIX – Need to visit an MVD office? Leave that novel at home, you won’t need it to pass the time because the average time people spend at an Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division office has been cut in half in 2017 compared to last year.

So far in 2017, customers at the 15 MVD offices in metro Phoenix and Tucson are averaging fewer than 30 minutes from the moment they enter an office to the time they leave ‒ a trend that began in February and continues today.

This improvement is due in large part to the successful implementation of the Arizona Management System (AMS). Championed by Gov. Doug Ducey, AMS empowers employees at every level of the MVD to come up with innovative ways to serve customers more efficiently.

“The Motor Vehicle Division has embraced the AMS philosophy of finding change for the better, and we’re seeing impressive results,” said ADOT Director John Halikowski. “Instead of making customers sit and wait for a number to be called, we have employees answering questions and providing assistance. We’ve expanded office hours in all our urban offices. We offer more services online and at MVD kiosks. The end result is a much shorter amount of time most people need to spend when they visit an MVD office, and more innovations are on the way.”

“I’m very proud of the work being done by MVD employees to make our offices run more efficiently in keeping with our vision to get people out of line and safely on the road,” said MVD Director Eric Jorgensen. “That vision is more than just an idea. It’s the reality being played out every business day at MVD where our customers are getting more of their valuable time back to do the things they want to do.”

A year ago, a visit to an MVD office in the Phoenix or Tucson metro areas would typically take almost one hour. Today urban offices are consistently showing an average experience time of fewer than 30 minutes. In some locations, the average time from when a customer enters the office to the time he or she leaves is closer to 20 minutes.

This trend is especially notable because MVD is serving more customers in 2017 compared to last year, but doing so far more efficiently. In the month of March, for example, MVD experienced an exceptionally high amount of customer traffic with an average of nearly 9,400 daily transactions, while the offices still managed to keep the urban experience time below 30 minutes.

Another stunning improvement is the wait time in the lobby, or the time it takes from when a customer is given a service number and called to a counter to complete a transaction. In July 2016, 70 percent of urban MVD customers waited more than 15 minutes; as of May this year, that figure was below 25 percent.

For more information about the Motor Vehicle Division, please visit azdot.gov/mvd.