End of an Era: Lakeville License Center to Discontinue Same-Day Driver’s License Pilot Program
If you’ve ever dreamed of walking out of the Department of Motor Vehicles with a brand new license in hand, you’ll have to get used to waiting a few weeks. Dakota County has announced that it will be pulling out of a pilot program at the license center in Lakeville that offered same-day issuance of standard Minnesota driver’s licenses.
The pilot program, which began in October 2022, was designed to provide an alternative to the traditional method of issuing driver’s licenses. However, it has been plagued by issues, including differences in the quality of the licenses issued. According to the Department of Public Safety’s Driver and Vehicle Services, over 74,000 IDs were issued at the Lakeville and Moorhead centers, but almost 40 percent of cardholders eventually replaced them with a traditional card or allowed the ID to expire.
Quality Issues and Customer Complaints
The main issue with the pilot program was the difference in quality between the licenses issued in-person and those issued centrally. The in-person IDs had a different laminate and felt different to the touch, which caused problems for customers when they tried to use them. Department of Vehicle Services Director Pong Xiong explained that the centrally issued IDs are printed at a higher capacity and have a higher quality than the over-the-counter licenses.
Xiong stated that the state tried to find a printing solution that produced a card as close as possible to the centrally printed one, but differences remained. The in-person IDs looked different, and the laminate felt different to the touch, which became a clear problem for an identification credential that is expected to be universal in a world where fakes are commonplace.
Future of the Pilot Program
The last day for the pilot program in Lakeville will be October 31, and the program will continue at the license service center in Moorhead. The Department of Public Safety’s Driver and Vehicle Services reported that the pilot program currently has no end date, and local service centers decide whether to participate.
For more information on the pilot program and the changes to the driver’s license issuance process, you can visit the source link to read the full article.
Image Source: www.twincities.com
