No waiting as RI resumes Wednesday hours at DMV

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Anna Syme waited in line at the Division of Motor Vehicles to get her license for six hours on Wednesday.

No, hold on. That's a typo. She waited six seconds.

"It was so exciting," said her mother, Jennifer Sterling, of Providence, who accompanied her. "It's kind of like winning the lottery."

Lines at the DMV, which have swelled to seven hours lately, evaporated Wednesday because, for the first time since December, DMV offices resumed Wednesday hours. Before that, the offices closed every Wednesday to allow for staff training on a new computer system and to convert data from the old system to the new one.

Although the training and conversion are still in progress, the DMV resumed Wednesday hours to handle an expected increase in traffic at its offices during the summer.

"There's no line," Sterling told her daughter Wednesday afternoon as they approached the machine that hands out numbered tickets to hold a person's place in line.

Almost as soon as 0269 spit out of the machine, an automated voice blared from overhead speakers. "Now serving No. 0269 at counter No. 20."

It took Syme longer to walk to the counter than to wait to be called.

Don't expect that kind of express service to last, said Amy P. Kempe, Governor Carcieri's press secretary and spokeswoman for the DMV. "We do anticipate that will pick right back up to normal as early as next week."