MVC to begin accepting drop-offs June 15

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle commission is set to begin its multi-stage reopening on June 15, Gov. Phil Murphy and MVC Chief Administrator Sue Fulton announced Friday.

“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,” Fulton said. “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.”

The agency is splitting its facilities into two camps. At locations designated as licensing centers, the MVC will process and validate permits from driving schools and high schools on a drop-off basis.

The agency’s vehicle centers will process titles and registrations from dealerships.

The MVC has had its doors closed for the last three months, beginning with a shutdown ordered on March 15.

In the interim, they’ve wracked up a staggering backlog of expired licenses, registrations and other documents.

To combat the added strain reopening will bring, the commission has temporarily reassigned more than 100 workers to conduct road tests, nearly tripling the number of such tests the MVC can conduct each week, from 5,800 to roughly 16,000.

Individuals who had road tests cancelled will be contacted by the commission to reschedule them.

The MVC won’t begin issuing new licenses for a while yet.

The next step of the agency’s phased reopening is, as of now, scheduled to begin on June 29.

During that stage, the agency will begin processing new licenses and permits, out-of-state transfers and individual title and registrations.

“We have more innovations coming to speed our service, while keeping our customers and employees safe,” Fulton said. “We look forward to sharing further plans as they are finalized.”