By Victoria Wicks
If Senate Bill 45 becomes law, South Dakotans won’t have to travel to the driver exam station nearly as often to renew their driver’s licenses.
Cindy Gerber is the state’s drivers licensing program director with the Department of Public Safety. She says people can renew their licenses online or by mail every other time, as long as they don’t change their name or have a revoked or suspended license. An address change can be made online.
“What that will do is decrease the wait times at some of our busier exam stations, and then for the remote areas of the state, in rural places, then every other renewal recycle will have to drive in,” Gerber says. “So if it’s a long drive for them, it’s a benefit for them, because they only really will have to come to us once every ten years.”
Online renewal is one of several recent innovations. Gerber says kiosks at exam stations are scheduled for installation in the spring. She says applicants can take care of some of the process ahead of time at the kiosk, resulting in less time spent with the examiner.
Gerber says some of the larger exam stations schedule drivers’ exams, further saving time for applicants.
The bill allowing remote renewal passed through the full Senate Thursday and now is headed for approval in the House.
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