CHARLESTON, WV - The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) has honored the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) with two 2023 AAMVA Awards:
• Service Awards, Improvement Through Efficiencies for West Virginia Digital Titles.
• Communications Awards, Informative Writing for Capsule: WV DMV’s Response to the Challenges of the COVID Pandemic.
The AAMVA awards honor individuals, teams and organizations who have committed their time and resources to safety initiatives, outstanding customer service, and public affairs and consumer education programs.
"We are incredibly honored to be acknowledged by this prestigious national association," said DMV Commissioner Everett Frazier. "This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the Justice administration, the West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT), our exceptional DMV executive staff, and the unwavering commitment of our DMV workers across regional offices. Together, we've elevated our West Virginia DMV to proudly stand as one of the foremost DMVs in the country."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the DMV had to come up with innovative ways to do business while keeping people safe at the same time. Driving skills tests still had to be administered so that new drivers could get their licenses.
“We were the first state in the country to develop a contactless driving skills test,” Frazier said. “We had examiners monitoring them from a distance. We set up road courses in parking lots and monitored them from a distance.”
He said other states took notice of some of the DMV’s innovations during COVID.
“Other states adopted the way West Virginia was doing things and quickly followed West Virginia’s path,” Frazier said. “West Virginia was not last. West Virginia led the country on these paths and different ways of doing business.”
The DMV also had to come up with new and efficient ways to process motor vehicle titles during the pandemic. The DMV looked at ways to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and embraced electronic liens and titles.
Building on that effort to move faster on electronic titles, the DMV launched the National Digital Title Clearinghouse in August 2023, the first of its kind in the United States.
The Clearinghouse gives auto dealers, insurance carriers, fleet operators and lenders that are not based in West Virginia a fast and efficient way to get digital titles for their vehicles. A digital title has digital documentation and eliminates the need for a paper title. The Clearinghouse can get a digital title to the owner in as little as one business day. Click
here for more information about the National Digital Title Clearinghouse.
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) was founded in 1933. The association serves motor vehicle and law enforcement agencies throughout North America.