BOSTON – Ask anyone living in the United States of America what their least favorite activity is and the closest you’ll get to a consensus may be a trip to the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV).
Long an aggravating but necessary thorn in the side of John Q. Taxpayer, the RMV as we know it today is in the process of getting a 21st century makeover.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, or MassDOT, is in the midst of a five-year plan to radically alter the current RMV system to a more efficient online operation, handling such functions as license and registration renewals, changes of address, paying for citations, scheduling road tests, title inquiries and various permit activities.
While certain processes such as out of state license conversions and identification photographs, which are mandatory every ten years in Massachusetts, would still need to be handled at an RMV facility, MassDOT officials are confident the system is headed in the right direction.
“The current system is older, and in an age when computers are advancing as quickly as they are today, we must keep up,” said Michael Verseckes, a MassDOT spokesman. “With massrmv.com, we are now able to conduct more of our services online.”
This new emphasis on moving as much of the process online as possible is an effort to help decrease arduous wait times, which are updated every minute on massrmv.com, especially for those patrons living in greater Boston, where over two-thirds of the state’s population resides.
While counties such as Norfolk and Plymouth are home to only two RMV branches each, and handle vast, sometimes densely populated areas, the question on the minds of many is how will these changes impact those residents in many of the Commonwealth’s rural towns and communities, especially those located west of Worcester?
It is MassDOT’s contention that the changes will enable residents of communities such as Chester, who are caught in between two equidistant RMV facilities, Easthampton and Pittsfield, to avoid lengthy drives for a simple task such as renewing a license or changing an address, tasks which might even require taking an afternoon off from work to accomplish.
Many private citizens view it as an easy way out for the State House, who they believe, in the current economic downturn, are looking to cut spending any way possible, and cutting jobs at small facilities, many of which are understaffed as it is, would be in the state’s best interest economically and would be done under the guise of convenience to the average Bay Stater.
But there is no denying that the number of people conducting their RMV-related business online is steadily rising.
“In 2011, 2.9 million transactions were made online, and that number went up to 3.4 million this past year,” said Verseckes, listing license renewals, changing addresses, and changing organ donor status being the actions that occurred with the greatest frequency on the RMV website. “It’s about taking people out of line to go online.”
This is music to the ears of many western Mass. residents, whose RMV options have resembled somewhat of a revolving door over the years.
In Hampshire County, for instance, a longtime facility in Northampton was closed around the turn of the century, with a branch in Hadley opening shortly thereafter. When Hadley closed it’s doors several years back, it was subsequently replaced by the current RMV in Easthampton.
This has proved problematic for the Easthampton branch, which, in addition to handling the majority of Hampshire county, an area with an exorbitant student population, also serves as an option for residents of communities on the northwestern end of Hampden county, due to the city’s location on the Hampshire county line.
This has led to the Easthampton RMV becoming one of the most congested, and as a result, understaffed, branches in the entire Commonwealth.
For the majority of the hilltowns on the western end of Hampden county though, the closest RMV option is still Springfield due to it’s proximity to the Massachusetts Turnpike, but a Springfield RMV expedition could still take anywhere from a half an hour to 45 minutes from locations like Blandford and Russell, in good weather.
It is convenience to the state’s rural residents that is of greatest concern for State Senator Benjamin B. Downing (D- Pittsfield), who represents Berkshire County, as well numerous communities in the other three western Mass. counties, including Blandford and Chester, as of this year.
Long noted for championing the transportation needs of rural Bay Staters, Downing recently co-sponsored a bill brought forth by Representative Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown) and Senator Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst) to allow regional transit authorities to establish enterprise funds to expand transportation services to areas previously untouched by public transit.
“The department has to be responsible and efficient in addressing the challenges faced by rural residents,” said Downing.
The Senator also believes the continued online transition will make for some difficult cuts regarding the staffing of these facilities.
“It’s an issue of balancing competing interests,” said Downing. “The department has budgetary concerns, and that will make for cuts that will not be easy. It’s never good to lose jobs.”
The Senator believes that changes in the RMV will highlight another large issue concerning the state’s rural residents, which is the need for more expansive Internet service in western Mass.
“The pressures we face, combined with the need to be strategic about the money we do spend, highlights a need for high speed Internet connectivity, especially with the RMV moving more and more of it’s services online.” said Downing.
As Massachusetts moves to continue modernizing it’s registry of motor vehicles, residents of the Commonwealth are faced with a new reality, that perhaps the days of working for the state at a local branch of the RMV, and spending hours on end waiting to register Junior’s jalopy may be nearing an end, going the way of such antiquated American insitutions as the milkman, the ice man, the ragman and the mail man.
For some, that new reality is a welcome one.
