Kiosks at Safeway streamline vehicle registrations

The city’s latest effort to streamline vehicle registration transactions has procrastinators in mind.

Officials on Tuesday unveiled several self-service, supermarket-based kiosks where motorists — including motorcycle owners — can renew their vehicle registrations in minutes.

A car or truck owner on Oahu who has waited too long to send a payment can bypass the line at a satellite city hall and instead head to one of the Safeway outlets where DMV NOW kiosks have been installed, city Customers Services Director Sheri Kajiwara said.

Once there a transaction can be completed within minutes, and the vehicle owners will leave with both the vehicle registration card and the accompanying decal in their hands, she said. The kiosks are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We’re all procrastinators, and if you waited too long and you can’t wait the 10 to 14 days for processing and for it to come in the mail, you find yourself standing in line and waiting for your stickers,” she said.

Those who are past the expiration on their registrations may use the DMV NOW machines to pay their fines and then renew their registrations, another type of transaction that previously could only be done at satellite city halls.

The machines accept only credit or debit cards, not cash, and customers must also know either the vehicle registration bar code number or the vehicle’s license plate number.

Since 2000 the city has also offered vehicle owners an online option for renewing vehicle registrations; in 2017 roughly 27 percent of Oahu vehicles were renewed online.

The blue-and-orange kiosks, which feature touch-screen monitors similar to ATMs, are being rolled out as part of a one-year pilot program with California-based contractor Intellectual Technology Inc. If successful, the program could be continued and expanded, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.

The contractor is being compensated with only a $3-per-transaction fee, which the city is covering.

“This is about customer service, and we are in the customer service business,” Caldwell said. “My hope is that you’re going to see lines be reduced (at satellite city halls) and the people that are in lines are the ones who have more complicated, more difficult transactions who need help or assistance.”

The four Oahu Safeway branches where the kiosks have been installed are Kapahulu, Beretania, Waimalu and Kaneohe. Two others are in the works. Safeway stores are open 24 hours a day, and the vehicle registration machines will be as well, city officials said.

Intellectual Technology has similar arrangements to install kiosks in Hawaii’s four other counties, said Craig Litchin, Intellectual Technology’s CEO.