WANADA Responds to DC DMV Murphy Offers WANADAês Full Cooperation & Assistance
Following last weekês Public Roundtable on the DC Department of Motor Vehicles, WANADA submitted formal comments to the Committee on Public Works and the Environment, chaired by DC Council Member Carol Schwartz.
In a June 20, 2002 letter, WANADA CEO Gerard Murphy said the roundtable was helpful in getting a fuller understanding of the issues the agency has been dealing with over the past six weeks. He pointed out that the new car dealers in the Washington, DC region were, in all likelihood, the DMV’s biggest customers, and that weêve had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with DC DMV and its director Sherryl Hobbs Newman.
When the current service problems at the DMV arose in April and May, WANADA assembled a group of dealer members to meet with Newman and her staff to identify the specific issues, with the goal of implementing interim remedial strategies.
Key components of what we took away from the meeting were: 1) DMVês reassurance to us that we would have key staff contacts to respond to us as an industry when exigent problems and extraordinary service issues arose; and 2) the anticipation on DMVês part that service related problems emanating from the implementation of the new computer system would abate during June, said Murphy.
We believe things have gotten back on track, as the DMV said they would, but to ensure this, we are in the process of surveying members to make certain, he said.
Murphy had praise for one of Newmanês key lieutenants, Jackie Stanley, for responding to WANADA member dealers needing special attention on an individual or group level, adding that more Jackie Stanley type representatives are needed to deal with the agencyês demands.
On another front, Murphy added that, Itês apparent that making DMV the collection agency for the city government is a problem. While the city needs the revenue, it also needs a DMV that can do its own work in a critically important service area without being encumbered with a task that isnêt its job. My sense is that you and others on the City Council will be looking critically at the bill collection function of DMV with an eye toward what collections do to interfere unreasonably with the agencyês mission. Murphy offered WANADAês full cooperation, involvement and assistance.
A dealer member survey of DMV services is enclosed with this WANADA Bulletin, which all who do business with the agency are urged to complete and return to the association
Download Bulletin PDF