Full Report (PDF) - Office of the Legislative Auditor

DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 59not pennit any office, including branch offices, to locate near an emission test station,regardless of its distance from other deputies, because it may attract so muchbusiness that it would be unfair to other deputies.To achieve a better balance between customer service and other objectives, we recommendthat:• The Department of Public Safety should give more weight toimproving customer service in its regulation of deputy registrars.There is a variety of options DPS should consider. First, it could develop minimumstandards for waiting time and customer satisfaction that deputies would beexpected to meet. If a deputy does not meet those standards, a new deputy couldbe pennitted to become established, or alternatively, the existing deputy could bereplaced. A disadvantage of this option is that monitoring customer service wouldrequire additional state funds. Furthennore, establishing minimum standards doesnot encourage deputies to exceed the minimum.Increasing thenumber ofdeputyregistrars mayimprovecustomerservice.Second, it could increase the number of locations in the Twin Citi~s. area, either byreducing the five-mile limit in the core metropolitan area to 3 miles (the standardused for metropolitan areas in Oklahoma), or by choosing locations based on suchfactors as customer convenience and quality of service provided by nearby deputies.Increasing the number of locations may improve customer service for severalreasons. First, it could give customers better access. Second, it could givecustomers more choices in their area, promoting more competition. Third, increasingthe number oflocations could reduce the average number of transactions processedat each location, which may reduce customer waiting times. Our studyindicates that smaller deputies tend to have shorter waiting times.As with the first option, this option would increase state regulatory costs. Oneway to reduce the cost to the state of adding additional deputy registrars would beto charge new deputies a fee to cover some of these extra costs. Our corporatesale data indicated that people are willing to invest funds to become a deputy registrar.These options would take away business from existing deputies. But our financialanalysis indicates that most of the deputies in the central part of the Twin Citiesmetropolitan area are well past the size needed to be financially viable. Furthermore,though our data are not sufficient to reliably estimate how much deputieswould be affected financially, they do suggest that economies of scale taper off asdeputies become larger.Another way to improve customer service is to make it easier for customers to dobusiness by mail. Some states include return envelopes with their renewal notices.DPS officials said that they do not include return envelopes because it would costan extra two cents per envelope, or a total of about $80,000 per year, and it may increasepostage charges. Alternatively, it could make it clearer to the customer thatservice by mail is an option by including inserts which highlight mail service.Currently, the notice for mail service is in small print on the envelope and the