New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission centers reopen to long lines Tuesday
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission centers were able to reopen their doors to walk-in customers on Tuesday and were met with long lines across the state.
MVC licensing and vehicle centers reopened with new social distancing guidelines after they were closed for months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite only opening for limited services like new licenses, registrations, and titles municipalities all over the state reported lines, closures, and there were even reports of physical altercations.
The New Jersey MVC had reopened Monday, July 6, for student driver tests and inspections only, but in-person transactions were delayed until July 7 due to a problem with a new text message system intended to prevent overcrowding,
(L) Credit: @rbrouwer19 via Storyful | (R) Credit: Alani Morel via Storyful
Video from outside of an MVC center in Paterson, New Jersey showed socially distanced lines stretching down a city block.
Multiple facilities have said they would receive no more customers due to capacity being overwhelmed.
New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission Chief Administrator Sue Fulton released the following statement:
“As we reopen today, MVC agencies are experiencing extraordinarily high customer volumes. In anticipation of long lines due to social distancing restrictions, Agency management personnel were pre-deployed to our busiest agencies, beginning at 6:00 AM, two hours before our start time. Additionally, all of our senior staff in operations are deployed to agencies to help process transactions. While we understand the frustration of our customers in this extremely challenging and difficult time, our employees are doing the best they can to keep everyone safe and work as efficiently as possible. Our text notification systems are working as planned, and we remind everyone that expiration dates were extended. We ask everyone to check NJMVC.gov before you go to an agency, as some customers are in line for transactions that can be done online.”
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