N.J. expands program for driver’s license renewal by mail

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission is making it easier to renew your driver’s license by expanding a program it started last year.

About 60 percent of the 340,000 older drivers invited to renew their license by mail since November have taken the state up on the offer.

The “Skip the Trip” program now will be extended to drivers of all ages with notices going out to 1.5 million New Jersey motorists in the next year.

The average wait time at MVC offices statewide is about 26 minutes, according to Motor Vehicle Commission Chief Administrator Ray Martinez.

“If 1.5 million customers over the next year take advantage of this, we could potentially be saving customers 650,000 hours that belong to them,” he said Wednesday. “Hours they could use productively for themselves, their families.”

Martinez says mail renewals also will mean less time waiting in line for people who have other business at Motor Vehicle offices.

A trip to the post office may a new experience for some younger drivers, Martinez said.

“Younger people, a lot of them, don’t use the mail. They’ll use electronic means. Do something you haven’t done before. Go find the post office, get a stamp, and mail it in,” he said. “We’re working on our project, the matrix program, to get more and more of these transactions online but that’s in the future.”