SC - DMV overhaul to shut down offices

By Charmaine Smith Anderson Independent-Mail 7/16/2002

The second phase of a complete Department of Motor Vehicles overhaul will begin at the end of this month, shutting down the department’s branch offices statewide from July 29 through Aug. 2.

Offices will begin a staggered closing schedule on July 29. On Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, all of the department’s offices in the state will close, state Department of Public Safety spokesperson Sherri Iacobelli said. All Upstate offices will be open again by Aug. 8.

During the closings, the department will install new database software onto computers that the it disbursed to every office in May. The technology will create a more accurate database of motorists’ records and eventually eliminate long lines at local offices, she said.

“We are overhauling every process done at the DMV,” Ms. Iacobelli said. “That’s more than 400 types of transactions.”

The installation is the second phase of “Project Phoenix,” a $40 million program started in 1997.

In three phases, the project will focus on installing new computer equipment, training staff to use it and identifying ways for the department to better serve its more than 5,500 customers.

Ms. Iacobelli said the current computers and mainframe system were installed in 1979. Branch offices averaged about 22 equipment failures per month, creating delay after delay for customers, she said.

Once the new software is installed, workers will begin purging the nearly 130,000 deceased people still in the department’s files. The department is hoping to jump-start an online service that will allow some transactions to be completed at a motorist’s personal computer.

As the software is installed, offices will reopen on a staggered basis, Ms. Iacobelli said.

“You are not going to walk into the offices on Aug. 9 and see the lines suddenly disappear,” she warned.

http://www.andersonsc.com/stories/story_page.asp?id=66603

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-- Anonymous, July 18, 2002