County DMV closes amid further system errors

BOISE – The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office reports that their drivers license division has been shut down for the remainder of the day “due to continued problems with ITD’s (Idaho Transportation Department) new software.”

Department of Motor Vehicle Offices across the State of Idaho have been plagued by intermittent shutdowns and commuter errors since ITD implemented system upgrades earlier this month.

“Idaho’s computer system for issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards will upgrade this month from a 1980s mainframe to a more modern system. To make this transition, all county sheriff’s DMV offices that issue driver’s licenses and identification cards, will be closed Thursday, Aug. 9 and Friday, Aug. 10,” ITD said in a news release prior to the closures.

Office closures extended past those dates though and even when they did reopen the following week, system bugs and irate customers led to the ITD call center in Boise being flooded with complaints.

Working with limited resources for roughly a week, DMV staff and customers were once again let down when ITD announced on Monday, Aug. 27 that the system would once again be down– statewide.

“Driver’s License services are currently down across Idaho due to a multi-state outage by the vendor that provides driver’s license issuance through the Idaho Division of Motor Vehicles,” ITD stated. “There is no current estimated time on when the system will be online. ITD apologizes for the inconvenience to our customers and county staff.”

ITD did clarify that this most recent outage was unrelated to the recent software upgrades.

Tuesday morning, ITD followed up with another news release stating that they recommend “sheriff’s offices close their doors while troubleshooting continues.”

No information has been released as of yet detailing the specific nature of the system error or its cause.

SCSO Sheriff Mike Gunderson tells the News-Press that the drivers license division closure in Wallace is being handled on a day-to-day basis and it is unknown if it will be closed past Tuesday.

ITD plans to hold a press conference in Boise Tuesday afternoon to answer questions regarding the situation. It is expected that the Idaho Sheriff’s Association will voice their concerns over the new DMV system.

The News-Press will provide more information as it becomes available