A steady stream of customers during the first five days that the REAL ID program has been available in Pennsylvania has created long lines at some driver’s license centers and prompted the state to shift personnel to keep wait times reasonable.
Since the program began Feb. 1, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has processed about 15,000 of the new driver’s licenses or ID cards at its license centers and online for those who had their identification papers pre-verified. The in-person visits have caused long waiting times in some centers, including more than three hours at the Penn Hills site Wednesday afternoon.
PennDOT is monitoring all locations on an hourly basis and shifting employees from less busy centers to address the waiting times, Kurt Myers, deputy secretary for driver and vehicle services, said Thursday. In addition, 30 new employees will finish training this week and be deployed around the state by Saturday.
Mr. Myers said the agency tries to keep wait times to 30 minutes or less and conceded that some license centers have been above that at times in the past week. But he said some centers had busy times before REAL ID became available.
“If the customer perception is the wait time is too long, then the wait time is too long,” Mr. Myers said. “I can assure you we are monitoring this and shifting people around to address concerns. Some locations have had only a couple of people come in for REAL ID.”
The federal Department of Homeland Security has mandated that beginning in October 2020, anyone who wants to enter most federal buildings or pass through airport security must have either the harder-to-counterfeit REAL ID card or a passport. Federal officials ordered states to issues the cards in 2005 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 but Pennsylvania resisted until there was a firm date when residents would be refused access to facilities and flights.
The state took steps like pre-verification of ID documents and allowing payment by credit card — which is available at 12 REAL ID centers now and all license centers by summer — to help it process an expected 2.6 million cards before the deadline, Mr. Myers said. Residents who pre-verified their documents can order the new card online and receive it by mail without going to a license center.
The REAL ID center in the Pittsburgh area is at the Chartiers Valley Shopping Center in South Fayette, where customers can take their ID documents and receive their new cards over the counter. At other license centers, customers can have their documents verified and receive their cards by mail in about two weeks.
To illustrate the ebb and flow of customers, Mr. Myers said the larger Bridgeville center processed about 1,000 customers for licenses, REAL ID and other services Tuesday, and Penn Hills had 332 customers, 101 of them for REAL ID. On Thursday morning across the state, all centers had served 6,000 customers by 11 a.m. and about 450 of them had to wait longer than 30 minutes.
Mr. Myers said department statistics show Tuesdays, Saturdays and lunch hours typically are the busiest times, so customers should try to arrive at other times. But what he doesn’t want is for customers to hold back if they want the REAL ID card.
“That, in my opinion, is something we don’t want them to do,” he said. “We definitely encourage them to keep coming. We don’t want people to wait until the summer of 2020 to come in for their REAL ID card.”
To obtain the card, customers who received their first license or ID card before 2003 must provide an original or certified copy of a birth certificate with a raised seal or a valid passport; proof of a Social Security number such as an unlaminated Social Security card; proof of legal name changes such as a marriage license or an order from family court; and two proofs of a current address, such as a valid driver's license or ID card and a bank statement or utility bill less than 90 days old.
Those who received their first license or ID card after 2003 don’t have to verify their identification to receive the new cards because PennDOT still has their information.
The new cards cost $30 plus a renewal fee of $30.50 for a non-commercial license or ID card. Customers with time left on their existing card will have that time added to their new one for a maximum of seven years.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: March 8, 2019, 1:24 a.m.
