North Carolina DMV closes two offices indefinitely because of staffing shortages

The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles says it has closed two driver’s license offices in the southern part of the state because it doesn’t have enough people to run them.

The DMV offices in Laurinburg and Raeford, southwest of Fayetteville, have been closed since Monday, Aug. 19. The agency announced Thursday that they will remain closed indefinitely, until it can hire and train driver’s license examiners to staff them.

The DMV was borrowing examiners from nearby offices to keep Laurinburg and Raeford open, but determined that only spread out the staffing problem. It decided instead to refer customers from Hoke and Scotland counties to the larger offices in Aberdeen, Fayetteville, Hamlet and Lumberton.

The DMV has closed offices in the past because of a lack of staff, but only for a day or two, says spokesman Marty Homan. This is the first time in recent memory that a lack of workers has prompted such extended closures.

Homan said the DMV has 25 new examiners lined up to take the required five-week training class starting in September and another 25 starting the class in November. It hopes some of those new trainees will enable it to reopen the Laurinburg and Raeford offices by the end of the year.

The DMV has contacted customers with appointments at the Raeford office to reschedule elsewhere. The Laurinburg office was only accepting walk-in customers without appointments before it closed.

The DMV has been plagued by staffing shortages statewide for several years . As recently as 2022, about a quarter of all driver’s license examiner positions were vacant, contributing to long lines and wait times at the agency’s 115 driver’s license offices.

Higher pay and one-time sign-on and retention bonuses have helped reduce the vacancy rate to about 12%. But agency officials say to fully staff its driver’s license offices, it needs authorization and money to hire more examiners than currently permitted.

State law caps the number of employees in driver’s license offices at 568. The agency says it needs 638 to run them at fully capacity.

To try to alleviate crowding, the DMV encourages customers to check its website, MyNCDMV.gov , to see if they can do their driver’s license business online.