The NJ Motor Vehicle Commission is juggling office hours to save money and make times more convenient for customers. Effective July 31, MVC offices will be closed on Mondays and hours will be extended on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays – a way for the state to save $4 million a year in overtime and office costs for Mondays while extending hours on the most popular days of the week for customers.The 43 offices where New Jersey drivers go for licenses, titles and registrations and other services are currently open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
Beginning July 31, hours will be extended to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
“Customers like later hours, they like Saturday hours because they don’t have to take off from work – we’re very sensitive to that,” MVC Chief Administrator Raymond P. Martinez said. “Monday was our lowest-volume day. Saturdays tend to be the highest concentration.”
Even being open for only four hours on Saturdays, MVC agencies conducted 20,000 more transactions annually on those days than the next closest day.
Also beginning July 31, walk-in services offered at select agencies for license suspension and surcharge matters will be provided on weekdays only.
The changes do not affect hours at the state’s 29 inspection centers.
In another cost-cutting move, the state opted to eliminate mechanical inspections for vehicles, a decision expected to save $12 million a year. The move was planned for July 1, but the state is still negotiating with Parsons Corp., the vendor that provides the inspections, and no new date has been set for when the mechanical inspections will be dropped.
Emissions testing will continue to be done on vehicles.
Martinez said that even with the elimination of mechanical inspections, motorists could still be ticketed by police for having a cracked windshield, bald tires or blinkers and brake lights that don’t work.
{Star Ledger/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
