Of the many annoyances in life, a trip to the local motor vehicle office can rank near the top.
In early November, the Missouri Department of Revenue will activate new equipment intended to reduce the aggravation, speed up lines and get all of its systems talking to one another.
“With this roll out, there’s going to be new computers, scanners and a tablet for the customer,” said Ken Struemph, director of the Division of Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing.
The tablet will let the license applicant check their information for errors, while approximately 175 new work stations at the 275 license offices will speed lines.
“The license will look the same, but the experience will be different, because it should be able to be processed a lot quicker than it had in the past,” department Director Wayne Wallingford said.
One way the process will be quicker is eliminating trips to the local license office, Struemph said. Adult drivers between 21 and 49 will be able to renew their licenses online at every other renewal period, meaning 12 years between trips to the office for a license. And drivers will be able to obtain a new license online in cases where a license is lost or damaged, he said.
“If you happen to lose your driver’s license, you can go online and get a duplicate driver’s license every other time,” Struemph said. “We don’t want to open up duplicates to where I am going to apply for 10 and share them with all my buddies. You can get one duplicate online, and then the next time you would have to visit a driver’s license office.”
To implement the system, license offices will not process any driver license or non-driver identification applications between Nov. 6 and Nov. 11. Some offices will close entirely on Nov. 7, all offices will close Nov. 8 and every office should be ready with the new system when the doors open Nov. 12 after the Veterans Day holiday.
New features include easier online navigation, eliminating the need for new drivers to bring a physical copy of a Missouri State Highway Patrol driver test to the office and easier use by employees processing licenses.
The new system, which Struemph said is being installed at a cost of $33 million, is part of a complete modernization of the department’s driver and vehicle licensing authorized by legislation passed in 2021. That bill required auto dealers to turn over 10% of administrative fees charged to customers to fund the technology upgrades.
The second phase, which will be operational in July 2026, will connect the department to auto dealerships, who will be required to start collecting sales tax on vehicles at the time of sale. Once all dealers are collecting sales tax, Wallingford said, the number of vehicles on the road with expired temporary tags should decline.
“That’s our hope, because I see a lot of them,” he said.
Currently, sales taxes — which can be several thousand dollars on a new vehicle — are collected at the license office at the time of registration. The department’s current system is so old and inefficient that when the bill to require dealers to collect the tax was passed, there was no way of knowing how many owners were driving cars and trucks on temporary tags.
Every license office in the state is operated by a contractor who receives a fee on each transaction to support their operations. At each office currently, a person who needs to renew a license at the same time they file or renew a vehicle registration must go through two lines.
That will change once the new system is fully operational, Struemph said.
“We really don’t think that we’re going to have to have more staff in the offices, but we’ve got more flexibility in the offices,” he said.
When motorists renew their licenses, they will retain the choice of obtaining a REAL ID compliant license or to have their license issued without the REAL ID certification. Passed in 2005 in response to the 9-11 terror attacks, the federal law requires states to verify identity from documents such as birth certificates or passports, legal status through citizenship or legal resident documentation and status with the Social Security system.
Many of the same documents required for REAL ID are needed to obtain a license that is not compliant.
Federal law requires a REAL ID-compliant card to enter some federal facilities. After numerous extensions, starting May 7, 2025, a REAL ID will be required as identification to board airline flights.
One feature of the new system will allow motorists to access their license through an online app, Struemph said.
“You hit that app, and then it’ll show your driver’s license,” he said. “And it actually makes sure through the new technologies, that ‘yep, this is really Ken Struemph’ looking at it, and you got access to your driver’s license.”
The new app’s security features include using biometric technology to verify identity, he said.
“Biometric, absolutely,” Struemph said. “It looks at many different features, many different features.”
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.
