Good Question: Where are the mobile DMV units?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC)— Mark is one of several people reaching out to News10NBC’s Brennan Somers wanting to know: Are the mobile DMV units coming back to our towns?

The short answer? No, not anytime soon.

Somers spoke with the Monroe County Clerk Jamie Romeo about it.

News10NBC’s Brennan Somers: Where are the mobile DMVs? That’s the GQ I got recently.

Monroe County Clerk Jamie Romeo: So the mobile DMVs were pulled when the COVID-19 hit.

When they took the mobile DVMs out, county officials put them through an audit. The results?

Not great.

Romeo: I will be completely blunt and honest in saying it is extremely outdated equipment. As we look forward in making sure that part of what state DMV operates has to make sure that the state is providing adequate equipment and also reliable equipment not just for our staff but for the residents that we serve. That’s another big reason why those units are not rolled out.

Somers: Now, this is really a software technology issue. What is your concern about if you if you put them out there? It’s set up for a day. you have people showing up and then you have an issue where there could be some frustrations that someone can’t get something done?

Romeo: So we say we put this out into a town hall, someone takes a five to 10-minute drive to their local town hall and the equipment doesn’t work–because to be quite frank, we have not run a successful transaction on this equipment in the last 18 months. We’ve been testing it mostly because it’s significantly outdated hardware and software.

So did the equipment just go bad overnight at the start of the pandemic?

No.

Romeo says there were hiccups with it before but they’ve just had more time to look at the units. She says they have and continue to ask for upgrades from Albany.

There’s a time timetable for when the mobile DMV’s are used again. Clearly, Romeo is putting a lot of this on the state DMV for the hold-up.

Somers reached out and got this response:

"DMV successfully supports several counties in conducting mobile outreach programs. And while the pandemic has impacted DMV operations across the state, we have offered to assist Monroe County as needed should they choose to restart the mobile outreach program."

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