Is it worth driving to Stayton for a quicker DMV visit?

When Gary Tiffin needed to visit a DMV office, he had a choice. 

The South Salem office is closer to home in Turner, but he went to the Stayton office. 

Tiffin’s view is based on four or five trips to the Stayton DMV office and is the same as many people have – it’s faster to go to Stayton. 

“I take my number and I’ve got five people begging me to come to their station,” said Tiffin, the Mayor of Turner. 

Indeed, on a recent Wednesday, the wait time at the two Salem offices peaked at 30 minutes (South Salem) and 27 minutes (North Salem), and the wait at Woodburn peaked at 24 minutes.  

The wait time at Stayton: six minutes. 

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The belief that the wait time is shorter in Stayton is a popular one. ODOT spokesman Lou Torres said when he took his children for their driving tests from his home outside Silverton, he went to the Stayton DMV because he heard it was faster. 

The reality, according to DMV’s statistics, is that on average the Stayton office is only a few minutes faster than either of the two offices in Salem. Through June 30, the average wait time at the North Salem office was 12.3 minutes, South Salem was 10.5, Woodburn was 10.7, Stayton was 9.3, and Dallas was 9.2 

“I’ve heard the same thing about many offices — then occasionally I’ll hear the opposite,” DMV spokesman David House said. “How often do you have to go to DMV? Not often. The one day you went to this office there was a wait.” 

Since 2015, the Oregon DMV has placed updated wait times for each location on its website. 

House said as people look at wait times online, they may choose to go to one office over another and slow down the service at the previously faster location. 

Added Torres, “I had to renew my license a couple weeks ago, so I went to the (North Salem) one on Lancaster. I was shocked how fast I was in and out of there.” 

Torres said Oregon’s DMV has taken huge strides to improve customer service in recent years. 

Speeding up wait times has been a component in that. 

And it’s worked. Wait times have improved at most local offices. For example, North Salem went from 14.2 minutes to 12.3, and South Salem from 12.8 minutes to 10.5.

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Statewide, the longest average wait is 37.5 minutes at the North Portland office. 

At peak times, however, the wait can be up two hours at offices in the Portland Metro area. 

A dmv.com study says the nationwide average for wait time at a DMV is 44 minutes. 

In California, wait times are so long the California Legislature brought up the issue in August and called a hearing on the issue. In Sacramento, the average wait time in 2018 is 102 minutes. 

“That’s better than I heard,” House said. “California has a lot of problems. They have a reputation for ‘you show up at 7 a.m. and you’re lucky you get through by the end of the day’.” 

Oregon’s offices may see some intermittent slowdowns starting in January. The Oregon DMV is preparing to make significant improvements to its software. It is expected to begin training and installation of the $69.4 million system in January 2019, though the roll-out of the computer system is not expected to be complete until 2020. 

When each component of the computer system is brought online, the service is expected to be slower for a short amount of time. 

“We are dealing with a computer system from the early '70s,” Torres said. 

As for Turner’s Tiffin, he hopes the Stayton office’s speediness remains a local secret. 

“Please don’t tell anybody about that,” he said, “or it will get crowded.” 

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You can reach Bill Poehler by email at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler