NJ motor vehicle facility services to return in stages this month

State officials announced on Friday that various services will be restarted in stages this month at New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission facilities. In-person transactions will still be limited, and residents are still encouraged to renew registrations and licenses and do other NJMVC business online at NJMVC.gov when possible.

“The old MVC crowded a lot of people into a lot of small spaces. We can’t operate like that in a COVID-19 world,” said Sue Fulton, chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. “Our reopening plan re-imagines MVC workflows, with streamlined processes to clear the backlog and ensure that you spend as little time as possible at MVC.”

Fulton said the first priority is to ensure the health and safety of employees and customers. She said MVC workspaces have been overhauled during the COVID-19 closure to add plexiglass barriers and other social distancing measures. Employees are returning to the agencies next week for health and safety briefings, hardware and software reboots, and training on new protocols, she said.

Everyone who enters a Motor Vehicle Commission agency will be required to wear a face covering, including customers and employees. If a customer cannot wear a face covering, the commission will make other arrangements for the transaction.

In order to limit crowds and speed up services during the phased reopening, some agencies have been designated as licensing centers and some as vehicle centers. A list of licensing centers and vehicle centers is available online here. Bakers Basin in Lawrence, Edison, and Flemington have been designated as licensing centers. Trenton, South Brunswick, and Somerville have been designated as vehicle centers.

Drop-off and pick-up transactions will be processed starting June 15, but only the following:

  • At designated licensing centers, MVC will be processing and validating permits from driving schools and high schools on a drop-off basis. 
  • At designated vehicle centers, MVC employees will be processing registration and title work from dealers. License plates can also be surrendered at these agencies in a designated area.

The MVC will also be processing registration and title transfers for private sales through a combination of online and mail-in procedures. Customers will be able to sign up for this option at NJMVC.gov. Officials said more details will be provided in the next few days. 

Road tests and the issuing of new licenses and permits are tentatively expected to start on June 29, with some additional transactions like out-of-state transfers and private sales registrations on a limited basis to prevent crowding. 

The commission has tripled road-testing capacity, adding 11 courses and reassigning more than 100 safety specialists to serve as road test examiners for 30 to 60 days. Officials said this will take the MVC from an average of 5,800 road tests per week to about 16,300. Officials expect the backlog to be cleared by the end of the 60 days.

Residents whose road tests were canceled during the shut-down will be contacted by MVC representatives and provided with a secure link to sign up for the first appointments.

At designated licensing centers, MVC employees will be processing new licenses and permits, out-of-state transfers, and REAL ID for residents whose appointments were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, starting June 29.

At designated vehicle centers, the MVC will be adding registration and title transaction services starting June 29..

Transactions that can be done online will not be available in person yet. The commission urges residents to use NJMVC.gov to renew or replace licenses, renew or replace registrations, or change addresses. Customers can also contact the MVC by email for help with a suspension, officials said.

Avatar of Krystal Knapp

Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.

2 Comments

Comments are closed.