By Rusty Crerand / ADOT Communications

Did you know the ADOT website has a place where you can get questions answered, share concerns, tell us we’re doing a great job and even complain a little or a lot? Just click on “Contact” at the top right-hand corner of any page and the comment form pops up.

We can address anything related to ADOT, including a question about when a project will be finished, a request to fix a pothole and an observation that a traffic signal is too long. Just remember: ADOT plans, builds and maintains state routes, U.S. highways and interstate freeways (for example: State Route 87, US 93 and Interstate 10). Your neighborhood streets and lights are maintained by your city/town streets department or the county DOT.

You can also use the ADOT website contact form to connect with the Motor Vehicle Division and ask any questions you might have regarding your vehicle registration, driver license, ignition interlock or other matters involving your car or driving it.

Sometimes people avoid using these types of comment forms because they think no one will read it. To the contrary, an ADOT staff member starts working on your inquiry as soon as we receive it. We have a pretty good track record of responding on average within one business day. To be sure your inquiry gets answered efficiently, it’s important to select the appropriate issue from the drop-down menu.

So give it a try. Last year we answered thousands of inquiries. We look forward to hearing from you at apps.azdot.gov/contact_adot/.

By Peter Corbett / ADOT Communications

Arizona’s original license plates more than a century ago were so personalized that early horseless carriage owners made their own tags of leather, metal or hand-painted pine boards.

Today, the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division offers dozens of colorful specialty plates printed on aluminum along with standard-issue plates.

But when statehood arrived in 1912, Arizona didn't make license plates. Instead, the secretary of state issued automobile owners a numbered aluminum medallion, typically mounted on the dashboard.

"Owners purchased metal license plates from businesses or made their own tag with the medallion number on it," said Gary Fox, an Arizona license plate collector and a member of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association.

Some car owners just painted the medallion number on their cars, Fox said.

1914 Plates

Arizona’s first plates, issued in 1914, were blue with white letters and about half the height of today’s tags.

Plates made of copper, issued from 1932-34, became popular with collectors and today sell for several hundred dollars each.

Arizona’s 1917 plates featured a steer-head icon that is believed to be one of the first images on U.S. license plates. The steer was gone the next year and never reappeared.

1917 Steerhead

Plates with county names were issued in 1936-38. Collectors try to get all 14 counties (there are 15 counties now), but it can be difficult to find plates from some of the smaller counties, said Fox, whose collection of historic plates is featured on his website: azplates.com.

His site reveals these other details of license plate trivia:

• The Grand Canyon State slogan first appeared on Arizona plates in 1940.
• Arizona started offering personalized plates in 1975.

Over the past half century, the standard plates have been tan with black letters from 1966-68; yellow plates with black letters from 1969-72; mustard yellow with green letters from 1973-80; and maroon with white letters from 1980-97.

Arizona’s current multicolored design with purple mountains and saguaros arrived 20 years ago. Since 2008, the plates no longer feature embossed or raised letters and numerals.

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

Numbers are useful and may tell a story, but they can only do so much.

At the end of a ballgame, the numbers will tell you who won. But they can’t convey the thrill of seeing a last-minute touchdown drive, a grand-slam home run, a buzzer-beater to win the championship.

At the Motor Vehicle Division, numbers tell us a lot of things. One of the most important things is how busy our offices are.

We want to get you out of line and safely on the road, so we like it when those numbers go down just like they have been for a while.

In the last half of 2016, MVD office wait times in metro Phoenix and Tucson decreased an average of 20 minutes. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. To get that, we need you.

MVD hears from people all the time. And one of the best things we hear is that going to the MVD today is a lot quicker and easier than it was not so long ago.

So what have we been doing?

You may have heard of the Arizona Management System, and it’s a big reason why things keep getting better. Governor Doug Ducey has championed this idea, which empowers every one of our employees to come up with improvements. It could be something as small as moving a copy machine, to opening MVD offices half an hour early in Tucson.

That Tucson idea? We’ve actually done that. It’s meant people get in earlier, our employees can be scheduled more evenly throughout the day, wait times are way down and overtime costs have been cut more than 80 percent.

Not bad at all.

We also do things like use people (yes, actual people!) to help customers instead of relying on a computer voice to tell people when to come to a service window.

That means when you visit one of our offices, we can help make sure you have your paperwork ready to go so when you get to the service window your transaction goes smoother and you – not to mention your fellow customers – get out faster. We’ve also increased our capacity for scheduling road test appointments online (we’re pretty sure the internet is here to stay) and more ideas are being looked at all the time.

We love that the average wait time at our busiest Phoenix and Tucson area offices is down 20 minutes, but the search for quality isn’t so much about better numbers, but better service – for you.

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

If you’re a veteran, thank you for your service. Your sacrifices for our freedom are appreciated by all of us at the Arizona Department of Transportation.

And as we noted last week, the good folks at the Motor Vehicle Division have some good news for you too.

Until now, you had to visit an MVD or Authorized Third Party office to verify your status as a veteran or immediate family member in order to get a veterans specialty plate.

Now that MVD has developed an electronic affidavit system, these very popular plates can now be ordered online at ServiceArizona.com. This secure method includes and an audit system to ensure compliance makes sure only people who are eligible for these plates can get them.

Every month, about 1,200 of these transactions are handled at MVD offices. With this change, ordering can be done on your time and at your convenience on a personal computer or smart device. It also means fewer people at MVD offices, proving we’re always doing more to get you out of line and safely on the road.

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

Your dad may have warned you to never get out of line. He was probably right, but at the risk of being rebels the good folks at the Motor Vehicle Division actually want you to get out of line … and safely on the road.

Lots of things have been done to help us reach that goal, and more of them are available right now.

For example, you’ve seen those Authorized Third Party providers that offer many of MVD’s services? They’re convenient supplements to MVD locations when you need to do something that requires an office visit.

Not all of these partner providers are set up to do testing for driver licenses and take photos, but we’re adding more all the time. And that’s good news for you.

As we shared today, there are now 22 Third Party providers operating 33 locations throughout Arizona where taking the driving tests and getting that fabulous photo taken are no problem at all.

This means more options and you can get out of line!

Dad won’t mind.

Here's our full list of MVD Authorized Third Party providers.

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

There are three new options coming to the dozens of specialty plates available through ADOT's Motor Vehicle Division.

As of Monday, Dec. 19, you can show your support for Special Olympics, Route 66 or Grand Canyon University – and benefit worthy causes in the process. The Special Olympics plates will support that organization's programs, while Route 66 plates will support historic preservation and Grand Canyon University plates will help provide academic scholarships.

How much of a difference do specialty plates make for those causes? Our news release adds it up: $66 million in total revenue since fiscal 2007 alone. And keep in mind that specialty plates have been around much longer than that.

Of the $25 cost per year for a specialty plate, $17 goes to a designated group or cause.

If you're interested in getting a specialty plate, you can see the full list and even order yours online at ServiceArizona.com.

If you want a look at the three plates available as of next week, click on the video above embedded from the ADOT Facebook page.

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

We shared the news today about a state law taking effect Jan. 1 that aims to ease the burden faced by survivors of a military member who has made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation.

The Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division will implement this law by waiving the registration fee and Vehicle License Tax for one vehicle – trailers included – for a qualified surviving spouse or dependent.

The benefit can be renewed annually and applies to survivors of those who bravely served in any branch of the U.S. military, including the National Guard, Coast Guard and Reserves.

Everyone at ADOT is proud to be a part of this effort to honor these heroes and their families.

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

Everyone agrees that cancer deserves a knockout punch. And ADOT’s Motor Vehicle Division is proud to offer Arizonans a way to help in the fight.

Since 2006, MVD has offered the Pink Ribbon breast cancer awareness specialty license plate. As Governor Doug Ducey reported this week, nearly 110,000 have been sold to date, raising $2 million.

Those millions have gone to the Arizona Department of Health Services' Well Woman HealthCheck Program, which helps pay for screening and treatment of breast and cervical cancer for uninsured Arizonans.

It’s just one of many worthy causes funded by specialty plates offered by MVD and fueled by your generosity.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and it’s also a great time for all of us at ADOT to say thank you for making this program a success.

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

We all remember that red-letter day when we walked into the Motor Vehicle office and proudly showed that we were ready to get our driver license because, by golly, we had passed both drivers’ education and a road test!

Fun times for sure.

Now to be honest, until recently there was a chance that ADOT’s Motor Vehicle Division might put the, ahem, brakes on your celebration, if only for a few minutes.

That’s because if you got drivers ed at a private driving school (which these days means most people), MVD might randomly select you for another road test just to make sure you were well-taught.

But it didn’t seem sporting to make sure the school is doing things the right way by putting you through another road test. So, as we announced today, MVD has stopped doing that because there are other ways to make sure the schools are up to snuff. We’d rather have you spend less time in line and get you safely on the road.

Just one more way MVD is ahead of the curve.

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

Nobody likes standing in line. That's why ADOT's Motor Vehicle Division works very hard to get you out of line and safely on the road.

That means we’re even interested in keeping you out of somebody else’s line – in this case, the Social Security Administration's.

We’re not being critical of those folks; we’re just saying there is a new way that you can do business with them online.

Arizona is now one of only 15 states offering residents a secure online way for to connect to the Social Security Administration website at ssa.gov/ssnumber to apply for a replacement Social Security card.

We’ve partnered with the nonprofit American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators to offer the Driver License Data Verification service. This system verifies things such as name, address, birth date, license expiration date, etc., then confirms their validity.

The secure data-verification process also streamlines the current process used by banks, retailers and government agencies for verifying a person’s identity. When someone applies for a bank loan or makes a major purchase, this electronic system eliminates paperwork that may takes days to process by moving that secure process online.

Online. Sounds a lot better than in line. That’s because it is.

Just another way MVD is ahead of the curve.