Full Report (PDF) - Office of the Legislative Auditor

32MOTOR VEmCLE DEPUTY REGISTRARSin 1993, the number of motor vehicle transactions ranged from a low of258,000in February to a high of 526,000 in April. The Department of Public Safety staggersregistration due dates for automobiles, passenger vans, and light trucks fromMarch through December, and sets March 1st as the due date for renewing the registrationof trucks, motorcycles, and trailers. However, vehicle registrations do nothave to be renewed until the vehicle is used. As a result, many people wait untilspring to renew seasonal vehicles, such as boat trailers.Transaction volume also varies from day to day. RegistIation renewals are due atthe end of the month, though there is a ten day grace period. Many deputy registIarsobserved that the busiest days tend to be the first ten days of the month andthe days at the end of the month.Our samplereflects waitingtimes duringthe busy half ofthree"average"months.We made 205 visits to deputy registrars between July 29 and October II, 1993.As a result, our observation period does not include the busiest season (spring),nor the slowest season (winter, particularly February). We made about 80 percentof our visits during the last two business days of the month or the first ten days ofthe month. Thus, our sample reflects waiting times during the busy half of three"average" months.We visited 86 deputy registmrs, including all 41 deputy registmrs in the Twin Citiesmetropolitan area and 45 deputies outside the metropolitan area. To save traveltime, we made about 90 percent of our trips within 75 miles of St. Paul, an areathat includes Rochester, Mankato, and St. Cloud. For deputy registmrs in theTwin Cities metropolitan area, we made at least two visits, usually three. We visitedall of the large deputy registrars in the state and most of the medium-largedeputies. Since deputies in the Twin Cities area are larger than deputies in the restof the state, waiting times found in our sample may not reflect average waitingtimes in the state. As a result, we grouped visits by size of deputy (annual averagenumber of transactions), and type (public or private). To estimate state averages,we weighted group averages in proportion to their frequency in the state ratherthan their frequency in our sample. Thus, unless waiting times for deputies outsidethe Twin Cities area are significantly different from deputies of the same sizethat are near the Twin Cities area, our sample should reflect state averages. Interviewswith DPS field representatives indicate that small deputies rarely have longwaiting times throughout the state, which is consistent with our findings for smalldeputies in our sample.Overall, we found that:• Most people received prompt service from deputy registrars.The averagewaiting timewas about 4.2minutes.During the time period we studied, about half of the walk-in customers waited oneminute or less, and 76 percent waited less than 5 minutes. The average waitingtime was about 4.2 minutes.Waiting time varied from 0 to 60 minutes during our visits. Overall, 14 percent ofdeputy registrar customers waited at least 10 minutes, 7 percent waited at least 20minutes, and 2 percent waited 30 minutes or longer.