When the Alachua County Department of Motor Vehicles closed its doors and merged with the Alachua County Tax Collector’s office in March, the effects of the change were uncertain.
Months later, the transition seems to have proven successful.
The wait time at the Northwest 34th Boulevard — formerly 34th Street — office is typically about 26 minutes, followed by 12 minutes at the downtown office at 12 SE First St. and 10 minutes at the Butler Plaza office, 3207 SW 35th Boulevard, said John Power, chief deputy at the Alachua County Tax Collector’s office.
Though wait times have been cut significantly, Mondays and Fridays remain the two busiest days.
“We don’t have specific data, but we had heard that sometimes people had waited two or three hours in the past,” he said. “Prior to the merge, there was one location. It’s simple math: There was one office with about 10 employees serving the whole county. Now we have three offices and over 30 employees in that customer service position.”
Power said the tax collector’s office takes care of about 5,000 licenses a month, or 1,200 licenses weekly.
He said customers should try to utilize the Archer and downtown offices because the most traffic is going toward the 34th Boulevard location.
“That location of our office is getting about 50 percent of all the transactions,” he said. “The Archer Road location in Butler Plaza is doing about 30 percent of transactions, and downtown is about 20 percent.”
The merging of the offices has left the DMV building unoccupied, but the Northwest 34th Boulevard office still uses the building’s driving course for tests.
Donna Johnson, executive director of public service for the tax collector’s office’s Northwest Gainesville branch, said the change has pleased customers.
“They are elated that the wait time has gone down,” she said. “We do feel like it has been successful.”
Rita Hart, division coordinator for the Northwest Gainesville branch, who has worked at the tax collector’s office for almost two years, said the change has been efficient despite the possibility that it could have been a rough transformation.
“I think it’s great when you consider what a big transition it was,” she said. “Adding all the new technology, the scanners and printers and cameras — all that stuff could go wrong. All in all, I think it’s been really good.”
Contact Hanna Marcus at hmarcus@alligator.org.
