PHOENIX – Have you sold your car online, to a person down the street, to a family member? Don’t forget to report that sale to the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division by filing a Sold Notice.

It’s not only the law; it can save you trouble – and money.

A Sold Notice should be completed within 10 calendar days of selling, trading in, donating or otherwise transferring ownership of a vehicle. It’s free and can be done anytime at ServiceArizona.com.

This notice ensures that MVD and law enforcement have a record of who currently owns the vehicle. If the vehicle is found abandoned, without updated sold notice information the previous owner will still be listed as the current owner and could get the bill for towing and other fees.

If a vehicle is abandoned on certain federal or state lands, owners can be charged $600 or more with storage fees also possible. Costs are similar for vehicles left on private property.

There also have been cases in which the prior owner of a vehicle without a Sold Notice on file has been contacted by law enforcement because that vehicle has been used during a crime.

In such cases, there are ways for you to prove that you sold the vehicle. But filing a Sold Notice will save you that trouble.

“A Sold Notice protects consumers,” said MVD Stakeholder Relations Manager Jennifer Bowser-Richards. “If the vehicle is sold and is later in a crash or used in a crime, or if it’s simply abandoned, the MVD will have a record of the sale. That means a former owner won’t be responsible for abandoned vehicle fees, or worse called into court to explain why the vehicle was used in a crime or crash they had nothing do to with.”

The process is simple via ServiceArizona.com:

• Enter vehicle and seller’s information
• Enter the buyer’s information and the date vehicle was sold
• View and/or print a confirmation
• Complete an optional survey

MVD also keeps an eye out for unscrupulous unlicensed or licensed dealers who may attempt to sell a vehicle as though they are actually a private seller. When a vehicle is sold by a private owner to a dealer, a Sold Notice will alert MVD if that dealer attempts to re-sell the vehicle privately, and ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division will investigate.

For more information about abandoned vehicles and Sold Notices, please visit azdot.gov/mvd.

PHOENIX – A criminal investigation by the Arizona Department of Transportation led to the arrest of the owner of a former Authorized Third Party business in the Valley who fraudulently used vehicle titles to obtain loans from banks and other institutions.

As part of its stringent monitoring of Authorized Third Party providers, the Motor Vehicle Division’s Compliance Unit discovered irregularities in the record-keeping of the suspect, Tamica Goree, 44, owner of Motor Vehicle Southwest in Peoria. It then teamed with ADOT’s Office of Inspector General, which investigates allegations of criminal violations.

The investigation found that Goree had fraudulently added her name to the title of a 2011 Maserati sedan and then fraudulently removed the lienholder from the title. She then used the vehicle as collateral to obtain multiple bank loans. She also fraudulently used Motor Vehicle Division databases to receive loans on a newer model Porsche.

The Motor Vehicle Division immediately took steps to suspend Goree as a processor and shut down her business.

“Through its consistent monitoring of Authorized Third Party businesses for compliance with state law and agency procedures, ADOT stopped this person from defrauding others,” MVD Director Eric Jorgensen said. “While we work with private businesses to give customers more options for MVD services, we also monitor these operations closely to protect customers and their information.”

Goree’s case went before a state grand jury, which indicted her on four counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, all felonies. ADOT detectives arrested Goree and booked her into the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail on Sept. 6.

Those wishing to become authorized to transact business on MVD’s behalf must pass background checks and complete extensive training to ensure they can process transactions accurately. ADOT oversees all Authorized Third Party businesses to ensure that stringent operational requirements are being followed.

PHOENIX – Opening a new customer service location usually means cutting a ribbon at the door, but that can’t happen at the newest Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division offices because they’re located entirely in cyberspace.

An analysis of MVD customer traffic for the 2017 fiscal year shows that the upsurge in online usage at ServiceArizona.com and its associated kiosks is essentially the same amount of traffic experienced at two large urban “brick and mortar” MVD offices.

In fiscal 2017, ServiceArizona.com and kiosk traffic accounted for a combined 7.9 million customer transactions such as vehicle registration renewal, ordering a specialty license plate, updating insurance information and many other functions. That’s an increase of about 286,000 online transactions compared to the previous fiscal year, which is approximately how many transactions two typical physical locations in Phoenix or Tucson will handle.

“MVD is serving more people every year, and adding online options means we get more people out of line and safely on the road,” said MVD Director Eric Jorgensen. “In the most recent fiscal year, our online growth was so great that we basically created the equivalent of two new MVD offices. That means customers in every part of Arizona get high-quality service at their convenience and on their schedule, and we are using taxpayer dollars more efficiently.”

Under the Arizona Management System championed by Governor Doug Ducey, MVD has taken a leading role in implementing new strategies designed to improve customer service. Among those introduced within the last year include providing online appointments for road tests, installing a function to update crucial auto insurance information and allowing veterans’ specialty plates to be ordered online.

The online innovations combined with more efficient operational strategies at physical locations have helped lower the average customer time spent in an urban office to approximately 25 minutes compared to nearly an hour in mid-2016.

For more information: azdot.gov/mvd.

PHOENIX – The E-Verify process just got more secure for Arizona employers.

The Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that makes it possible for DHS to verify the validity of driver’s license and ID cards against the MVD database. 

The Records and Information from DMVs for E-Verify (RIDE) initiative is an enhancement to E-Verify that verifies the validity of driver’s license and ID card information by matching the data entered by employers against participating state motor vehicle department records. Approximately 80 percent of E-Verify cases use a driver’s license or ID card as proof of identity, making RIDE a critical tool to the program. With this agreement, when an employee presents an Arizona driver’s license or ID card for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification during the hiring process, E-Verify employers will now have the added benefit of confirming that identity document issued by the MVD is genuine. The employer does not see the MVD record, but will receive a match or no match response from E-Verify.

E-Verify is an Internet-based system that compares information from an employee's Form I-9 to data from DHS and Social Security Administration records to confirm employment eligibility. Additional partnerships such as RIDE allow for the verification of other documents which are acceptable for the Form I-9 process. RIDE enables two-part verification by validating the information on select identity documents issued by the Arizona MVD in addition to the existing employment authorization check. 

“The Arizona Motor Vehicle Division joined this partnership to help employers gain added assurance that their newly hired employees meet the guidelines required by federal law,” said MVD Director Eric Jorgensen.  “We’re very pleased to help streamline this process for Arizona employers.”

For more information about E-Verify and RIDE visit: e-verify.gov

For more information about MVD, visit: azdot.gov/mvd

PHOENIX – Beginning this Wednesday, July 12, Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division offices in the Phoenix and Tucson areas will open at noon on the second Wednesday of each month to accommodate expanded employee training.

MVD continues to improve its technical infrastructure, and added continuing education and other staff training is designed so employees have the tools and knowledge needed to implement these improvements on an ongoing basis.

The new permanent opening hours for the second Wednesday of each month only affect MVD locations in the greater Phoenix and Tucson areas and do not include offices in Apache Junction or any rural communities.

On all other business days, urban offices open at 7:30 a.m., so even with the modified schedule on the second Wednesday, the overall number of hours MVD locations are open each month has increased by six hours.

MVD also encourages customers to explore online options at www.ServiceArizona.com.  More than half of MVD transactions can be done online.

For more information: azdot.gov/mvd. 

PHOENIX – Hate lining up in the morning to be the first person through the door at an MVD office? The Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division is doing something about it.

For the past few weeks, MVD has been opening the doors at its Phoenix-area offices at 7:30 a.m. to see if it would help continue reducing the amount of time people need to spend at an MVD location.

“It works,” said MVD Director Eric Jorgensen. “Because the doors open at 7:30 instead of 8 o’clock, our employees’ schedules can be more flexible, which means we have more people available to serve customers at the busiest times such as the lunch hour.  That flexibility also cuts down on the need for workers to catch up on other tasks at the end of the day, which significantly lowers overtime hours and saves taxpayer dollars.”

The expanded hours were first tested in Tucson beginning in mid-2016 and resulted in lower customer wait times and lower overtime costs.

The added daily hours also allow MVD to proceed with a program to continually train customer service representatives as the agency modernizes its services. On the second Wednesday of each month, beginning July 12, urban MVD offices will open at noon to allow time for employee continuing education programs.

“MVD is ahead of the curve in providing services that get our customers out of line and safely on the road,” Jorgensen added. “That’s why we’re adding continuing education and other staff training so our employees have all the tools and knowledge they need to implement these improvements.”

The expanded office hours combined with the modified schedule on the second Wednesday of each month provide an overall increase of six hours a month during which customers may receive services at an urban MVD office.

For more information: azdot.gov/mvd.  

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.

PHOENIX – Having insurance for your car, truck or other motor vehicle isn’t just a wise idea, it’s the law. Now the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division has added two options to help customers report their insurance information online at ServiceArizona.com.

The Insurance Update is free and allows customers to electronically provide information regarding their insurance coverage directly to MVD. Insurance companies are given seven days by law to update policy information when changes such as cancellations or renewals occur. On those occasions when there may be a lag in that reporting time from an insurance provider, this online option will help customers with valid insurance to immediately update their MVD record and avoid a suspension.

The update tool is easy to use and asks for information that is found directly on an insurance card.

In addition to the Insurance Update, the Reinstatement Function will allow customers to reinstate vehicle insurance that had been previously canceled or lapsed. The function will determine eligibility for reinstatement, make real-time updates to the MVD customer database upon completion, allow the customer to pay the $50 fee for each vehicle reinstatement, and provide a receipt confirmation that indicates the registration has been reinstated.

For more information: azdot.gov/mvd.