MVD on right track with its mobile service

New Mexico is the fifth-largest state in the nation when it comes to land mass. Yet its population of just over 2 million is spread out over those nearly 122,000 square miles, making providing services a physical, and fiscal, challenge.

The internet is an economical option in many cases. So are mobile offices.

And now the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division has both.

MVD has allowed many drivers and vehicle owners to do business online for years: everything from renewing registrations, licenses and parking placards, to paying citations and updating insurance information, to requesting a replacement title or plate and notifying MVD a vehicle has been sold.

But some business has to be conducted in person.

So now MVD has unveiled a $192,000, 42-foot trailer complete with waiting area and four computerized work stations staffed by MVD employees.

The unit, a brainchild of MVD clerk Daniel Roybal, will take an office’s full services to remote parts of the Land of Enchantment.

As with online services, the unit will save members of those communities long treks to do routine MVD business.

And it saves all taxpayers money because it precludes building and staffing brick-and-mortar offices that will see minimal traffic.

First on the unit’s visit list are Angel Fire, Capitan, Crownpoint, Cuba, Dulce, Mesilla, Quemado and Ramah.

All have residents who deserve efficient and convenient vehicle and licensing services from their government.

And now they will get them.

MVD Director Will Duran says, “We started the mobile unit as a result of the governor’s initiative to make state government more efficient.”

The mobile unit, like internet services, is one that makes sense for a large, and largely rural, state like New Mexico.

MVD is on the right track with this expansion, and other state agencies should take note.

— Albuquerque Journal