The Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association says "Hawaii’s needlessly cumbersome paper processing" system is behind delays in dealers obtaining motor vehicle registrations and metal number plates for new car buyers.
"We are not aware of any other car market in the country with this level of difficulty in registering vehicles," said Dave Rolf, HADA’s executive director.
Rolf was responding to Tuesday’s Kokua Line question involving a new car buyer driving with a temporary paper license plate that had long expired.
But city officials maintain if there are prolonged delays in processing new car registrations, it rests with the dealers.
Although Hawaii has had an Electronic Lien and Title program, in which lien and title information can be electronically exchanged with lien-holders, for 10 years, Rolf said the problem is that paperwork is still required and "you still have to run around."
HADA is hoping for a "full-blown" and "efficient online registration for new and used vehicles (that) would save customers, dealers and the DMVs a lot of headaches."
Rolf also said current causes for delays in obtaining registration and a metal plate may include occasional unexpected delays at the DMV; the city canceling its "dealer window," causing most dealers to hire third-party vendors to stand in line for them at the DMV; shortened hours at the DMV’s downtown office; and the city prohibiting dealer representatives from registering more than two vehicles at a time.
Dealers have two methods to register new vehicles, and standing in line is not meant to be a regular procedure, said Sheri Kajiwara, director of the city Department of Customer Services.
The normal procedure is for dealers to drop off registrations at the city’s Chinatown Gateway motor vehicle registration service counter.
"Our target is two days turnaround because, based on past experience, dealers will complain if (it takes) longer," Kajiwara said. "The majority of the time, the turnaround is less than 48 hours."
She says she knows this because she has been approving overtime work on weekends "whenever we are running behind for any reason." That happened when the DMV was receiving "large drop-off batches of new cars recently," which resulted in a four-day backlog, she said.
The second method of recording registration is an "urgent situation." Dealers can go to any satellite city hall, although they are allowed only one counter visit with up to two transactions per day, Kajiwara said.
"We understand that sometimes there are emergencies that need same-day processing," she said. "We are accommodating those emergencies. If they have more than two ‘emergencies’ each day, that needs to be addressed by the dealership."
Kajiwara added, "Dealers need to be reminded that the purpose of our satellite city halls in communities was not intended to handle dealer transactions, but service general public transactions within neighborhoods. I cannot allow lengthy, multiple car business transactions to hold up the public line."
She said that participation in the Electronic Lien and Title program and electronic Fleet Dealer Registrations "is solely up to the dealer or financial institution to contract with the approved third-party service provider."
The electronic program also "does not automatically imply that the buyer will get their permanent plates faster than the manual submittal," Kajiwara said, although processing time is usually within 24 hours.
"We do encourage more dealers to sign up" for Fleet Dealer Registration, she said. Dealers with questions are encouraged to call the DMV.
Mahalo
To all the friendly and very competent staff in the orthopedic department at Tripler Army Medical Center: Dr. Duke Yim, Dr. Jeremy MacCullum and the nursing staff. Mahalo also to the nursing staff at the Community Living Center for my rehab. I am thankful to have met all of you who touched my life. May God bless you all. — Crawford G., Kurtistown, Hawaii island
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