Driving with an expired license can happen to anybody, especially when we consider everything the modern-day driver has to contend with. That sudden fear that one feels when one looks at your driver’s license only to see that the expiration date has passed is stressful for most people. The inevitable dread then begins to set in. You’ll need to take a day off work to go down to the DMV to sort it out, all of which happens at a snail’s pace. That fear that we all feel could be slightly easier to deal with in one US state soon.
How has the Department of Motor Vehicles gotten to this point?
No matter which US state you live in, the Department of Motor Vehicles is a place that nobody wants to find themselves in. The bureaucracy of any government department is legendary. And the problem is not limited to the United States either. All around the world, countries’ own versions of the DMV are well known for their lack of urgency or service delivery problems.
The problems around the US’s different states’ DMVs have become ever more prevalent in recent times. For example, in California, a DMV employee was convicted of accepting bribes to fraudulently update test scores for commercial license applicants. Meaning that there were people operating vehicles on the roads who had not passed the test.
Another noteworthy problem was in Miami-Dade County, where a crackdown was conducted to catch people who were hoarding DMV appointments and reselling them. This is what the recent bill is attempting to change. If it can pass the vote by the House Finance Committee, it could make some serious changes to benefit legitimate drivers.
What exactly is going to change for drivers, and where will it take place?
As mentioned before, the issues stem from the long waiting times that every driver has when going to the Department of Motor Vehicles. This is no doubt the biggest complaint for any driver, regardless of what state you live in. So the question then becomes, what are the lawmakers in the different states planning to change that waiting period and allow the average American driver time to fix things?
The answer in North Carolina is, any driver with an expired, suspended, or invalid driver’s license will get a two-year grace period to attempt to get another appointment for a new driver’s license. With North Carolina facing a huge backlog of applications for new licenses, something needed to be done to alleviate the pressure felt by drivers in NC.
House Bill 821 in the North Carolina General Assembly has yet to be voted on, but we cannot see anything other than the bill receiving bipartisan support in the General Assembly. The bill would create a situation where the state would be given time to catch up on the backlog and give North Carolinian drivers the time they need to make an appointment. With the innovation happening in the automotive sector, the governments of the world are falling behind modern-day technology.
Will the bill pass the vote and become the norm in more states in the US?
The American automotive sector is a volatile one for manufacturers and drivers alike. The law enforcement officers in America do not take breaking the laws of the road lightly. In 2023, North Carolina had 3,040,257 registered automobiles. We would be remiss if we did not ask the question: What if all those vehicle drivers were able to get an appointment to renew their licenses? The result would be disastrous, and to their credit, the lawmakers in North Carolina have considered the needs of the everyday North Carolinian and aim to give them more time.
