The Hawaii County Vehicle and Licensing Division reopens on Monday, June 1, but with significant changes.
All the usual locations will open except for Waimea, which will be closed indefinitely. Administrator Naomi O’Dell says this is because of personnel shortages.
In order to reduce the need for people to stand in long lines, people may now make appointments for the services they need. O’Dell says the offices will still take walk-ins, but they will be serviced if there is time. Some offices are already fully booked on some days.
O’Dell says their first priority is to handle the backlog of those with expired driver’s licenses or State I.D.s–she estimates at least 3,000 people have now-expired licenses. She asks those whose licenses or I.D.s expire after July 1 to try to hold off on their appointments until towards the end of June.
Everybody coming into a County facility must wear a face covering, unless somebody has a medical condition making mask-wearing unsafe. Health officials at the state and national levels have stressed that wearing a mask is to show respect and aloha for others, as the mask can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 from a mask-wearer to others. Staying at least 6 feet away from others is also important.
O’Dell says the county personnel will be wearing masks. They will also be doing extra cleaning of counters and other surfaces, including the vision check machine.
O’Dell asks everybody to do all vehicle registration renewals by one of three methods, so those who need to come into the office are only for new registrations or those that have expired:
- online https://mvr.ehawaii.gov/renewals/lookup.html?county=hawaii
- at one of the registration renewal Kiosks (Hilo and Kona Safeway, Waimea Foodland)
- or by mail (101 Pauahi St, Suite 5, Hilo 96720)
Road tests will not resume at this time. O’Dell says she estimates there are 1,900 road tests that need to be done, but the challenge is to figure out how to maintain social distancing in a vehicle.
Many have come in for duplicate driver’s licenses in order to get the gold star to meet the Federal Real ID requirement, which means people need either the gold star or a passport to travel on planes. That requirement has been postponed one year, from October 1, 2020 to October 1, 2021.
For driver’s license information and appointments, click here.
For State IDs information and appointments, click here.
For commercial driver’s license information and appointments, click here.
For taxi permits information and appointments, click here.
For general information, click here.