First Posted: 4/4/2015
COLUMBUS (AP) — The first of nine self-service kiosks intended to make Ohio vehicle registration faster and easier has opened in a supermarket in suburban Columbus with others to follow in southern and northern Ohio over the next few weeks.
The pilot project opened Thursday at a Marc’s store in Westerville, The Northeast Ohio Media Group (http://bit.ly/1DuIQB1) reported Saturday. The kiosks are intended to allow quick and easy renewal of vehicle registration. Two more in the Columbus area and three each in the Cleveland and Cincinnati areas are scheduled to open within six to eight weeks.
Kiosk users just need to swipe their driver’s license and credit card, and the machine will provide vehicle registration stickers. The BMV won’t charge any additional fee for using the machines, though credit-card charges will apply.
“They’re saying you can do that in less than 60 seconds,” said Lindsey Bohrer, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Ohioans already have other alternatives for registering their vehicles that don’t require going to a deputy registrar for renewal. Those options include online, phone and mail renewal. But those alternatives do not provide the registration stickers immediately.
The nine locations are part of a pilot program called “BMV4U.”
The director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, John Born, has said the program could be expanded to other locations around the state if the pilot project is successful. He also says the kiosks might be able to offer additional services.
“We’re looking to provide services when and where Ohioans want them and need them — not where we are and when we want to provide them,” Born told Ohio legislators last month.
State officials have said that a number of other states already have similar self-service programs or are considering them.
