Full Report (PDF) - Office of the Legislative Auditor

34MOTOR VEmCLE DEPUTY REGISTRARS• Waiting times at public deputies were not significantly different thanat private deputies.We estimate that the average wait time was 4.1 minutes for private deputies and4.3 minutes for public deputies. The difference between public and private deputyregistrars was not statistically significant, even when we controlled for size.Waiting times vary among deputies within each size category. Some deputiesoften have long waiting times, particularly around the 10th of each month. For example,Hennepin County's four service centers (Brookdale, Southdale, Ridgedale,and Hennepin County Government Center) had an average waiting time of 15 minutesduring the summer months, considerably longer than other large deputy registrars.In addition, 12 percent of Hennepin County's customers had to wait over 30minutes. While we did not visit individual deputy registrars enough times to obtainreliable average waiting times for each deputy, our observations and interviewswith deputy registrars indicate that there are large differences amongdeputies. For example, some people had to wait at least 30 minutes during at leasttwo of our visits to four deputy registrars in the Twin Cities area (St. Paul Sears,AAA Burnsville, AAA St. Louis Park, and Maplewood).DEPUTY REGISTRAR BUSINESS HOURSAnother indicator of customer service is a deputy registrar's business hours. Alldeputy registrars report their hours to the Department of Public Safety. We usedDPS data for 1993 to measure the total number of hours deputy registrars wereopen per week, whether they were open on Saturdays, and whether they wereopen during the evening (after 5:30 p.m.).. Deputyregistrars areopen anaverage of 43.8hours per week.We found that deputy registrars were open an average of 43.8 hours per week.About 29 percent of deputy registrars were open on Saturdays, and 23 percentwere open at least one evening per week.Deputy registrars were open between 33.5 and 62.5 hours per week, as shown inFigure 2.6. Five percent of deputies were open less than 40 hours per week, 62percent were open between 40 and 44 hours, 23 percent between 45 and 49 hours,and 10 percent 50 hours or more. The deputy registrar at the St. Paul Sears storewas open for 62.5 hours per week, the most in the state.Table 2.3 and Figures 2.7 and 2.8 show how hours vary by size and type of deputy.We found:• Compared with small deputies, large deputies are open for more hoursand are more likely to be open on Saturdays and evenings.Large deputies are open an average of 48.5 hours per week, compared with 41.5hours for small deputies. For most small deputies, it is not economical to be openfor long hours. For example, there are 17 deputy registrars in Minnesota that