Full Report (PDF) - Office of the Legislative Auditor

52MOTOR VEmCLE DEPUTY REGISTRARScounter, resulting in a reduction of three staff positions and an annual savings of$94,000. The current anangement is more efficient largely because the frontcounter employees can wolk on mail transactions when they are not busy withwalk-in customers. In addition, the front counter now has three additional employeesto better handle peak demand periods by walk-in customers.To estimate the cost of operating the front counter, we obtained cost estimatesfrom the department for the time before and after the January 1993 o~anizationalchange.• During fiscal year 1993, the cost per transaction at the front counter ofthe Department of Public Safety would have been $3.26 under thecurrent arrangement.Under the previous anangement, the combined cost of the front counter and themail title group would have been $3.70 per transaction. The cost of processingmotor vehicle titles and other long applications by mail was about $4.36 per transaction.Mail service isan efficient wayto processregistrationrenewals.• In fiscal year 1993, mail renewals cost $1.32 per transaction.The low cost for mail renewals (tabs) reflects the fact that registration renewalsare easier to process than other motor vehicle transactions and that mail service isan efficient way to process tabs. We believe that it would also be efficient for deputyregistrars to process tabs through the mail. The department plans to includethis option in its revised rules. We discuss ways to improve mail service in Chapter4.FEE STRUCTUREWe examined the fee structure for deputy registrars by measuring the transactiontimes for different types of transactions and by reviewing deputy registrar coststudies conducted by David Griffith & Associates in four counties. We found that:• Minnesota's fee structure does not reflect the workload differences fordifferent types of transactions.The administrative fee for motor vehicle renewals (tabs) is the same as the fee fortitles and drivers' licenses (though some deputies must give $.50 to the county foreach driver's license transaction), even though tabs take much less time to processthan titles or drivers' licenses. We found that the average transaction time wasabout 2.3 minutes for tabs, 6.7 minutes for motor vehicle titles, and 5 minutes fordrivers' licenses. These transaction times do not include the time spent preparingreports after the transaction is completed. These results also indicate that the largegap between the former $1 driver's license fee and the $3.50 motor vehicle feewas not justified on the basis of cost.