The Nevada DMV is getting rid of its DashPass system in metro areas, including Reno. The DashPass system previously allowed people to virtually check-in online or through a smartphone instead of having people come into the office and wait. It was created to shorten the wait time for visitors. The problem was people would sign up for appointments online, and then never show up!
Now it's back to square one to finding a solution in some cities. Metro area DMVs like Reno and four offices in Las Vegas have shut down its DashPass program this week after many people who signed up, never showed up. “As much as 20% of our customers who were getting in the queue using our remote system were not showing up so we were losing precious minutes waiting for people to come to a counter and they weren't there,” said Dave Fierro with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.
Fierro says those minutes add up. “We lost the equivalent of one of our metro office's full day’s production. That was how much time we were losing because of no shows,” said Fierro.
The Carson City office is one of 13 other smaller state DMVs which will continue the DashPass program, after trying it out for the past nine months. “They'll continue to use this system because it works very well and we don't have the incident of no-shows they had in metro offices,” said Fierro.
We bumped into Sophia Sefchick at the Carson City office on Wednesday She says she's used DashPass before and finds the process convenient. “I would get a text message, it's 45 minutes, 20 minutes. I knew when to head to the DMV. Go to the DMV, maybe waited 5 minutes and I was done,” said Sefchick.
Many others agreed saying… “It made it go a lot smoother, you know. I didn't have to come here, wait for God knows how long,” said Austin Warren.
With times being high over the last few months... “Our average has exceeded two hours,” said Fierro.
The DMV is looking to create a different plan to combat wait times for some of the bigger DMV offices in the state. “What we're working on in a sense to replace that feature is an appointment system. A lot of people have asked us for an appointment system, other states use it,” said Fierro.
The Nevada DMV is hoping to have the appointment system up and running by next fall.
