Mass. RMV to close 11 branches, 2 local
Published: July 3, 2009
Updated: July 6, 2009
BOSTON—The state Registry of Motor Vehicles is closing 11 branches statewide and opening five new branches in a move it says will save $1.7 million annually.
The branch closings will begin this month in Lowell and end in December in Boston.
Branches are also closing in North Attleborough, Cambridge, New Bedford, Springfield, Southbridge, Framingham, Falmouth, Eastham and Beverly.
The new branches will be opening at Massachusetts Turnpike offices, toll plazas and visitor centers, where the Registry won’t have to pay rent.
New plazas in Boston and Charlton will be full service. Branches in Natick, Bourne and Peabody will be “express” branches, meaning they’ll offer only core licensing and registration services.
To limit wait times, the RMV is increasing efforts to direct customers to its Web site for routine transactions.
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Years ago, a move was made to have registry offices free standing and owned by the state through the registry. The registry office in the north end of New Bedford was one of the results before it moved to its present location.
The plan now put forward is just another way of moving pieces around to make politicians happy. If the state really wanted to save money, they would set up state owned complexes where the state police, the registry, the highway department and the rest of the state agencies would be centered. One on the cape, one in the southeastern area and five or six more scattered throughout the rest of the state. ALL state offices woulkd be located there, just as the complex that Rhode Island has in the Cranston area.
Now THAT would save some money in the long run. Problem is that that would also take a considerable investment to realize if done all at once. So, start to do something along those lines with a goal of finally doing just that (consolidating state operations in an area complex) in the near future.
The only problem is that the politicians would never go with it. It is too much to ask them to give up their state office installation in their individual areas, and makes too much common sense for them to see the benefits and reasonableness of the idea.
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