R.I. Registry installs TVS to help divert waiting motorists
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 24, 2010
By Paul Davis
Journal StaffWriter
The flat screens, such as these two at the
Wakfield branch of the Division of Motor
Vehicles, show news, entertainment and ads
to help pacify people waiting in long lines -
The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

“I want my MTV,” the rock band Dire Straits once sang.
But what about my MVN — the Motor Vehicle Network?
Rhode Island’s Division of Motor Vehicles recently unveiled the program
for motorists at its remodeled Wakefield branch in South Kingstown, and
plans to air it on 13 at-screen TVs at its new Cranston headquarters,
scheduled to open in late August.
Produced by a Norwalk, Conn., company, the Motor Vehicle Network is
designed to help motorists pass their time in line more quickly.
“It keeps the public occupied,” says Sally Strachan, administrator of the
state DMV. The diversion is needed. Motorists sometimes wait for hours
while trying to get a license or do other business at the DMV. Last
December, the DMV closed on Wednesdays to prepare for a new computer
system, which officials say will eventually
shrink wait times. But the
closings frustrated drivers, and the department last month resumed its
Wednesday hours. “We’ve been very sensitive to the time people have to
wait in line,” says Strachan. “We’re doing what we can to make the wait
easier.”
On Thursday, motorists on wooden benches watched the program on
two screens in the Wakefield branch. They played trivia games (is that
Drew Barrymore as a kid?); sighed through five-day forecasts (yet more
heat, humidity, thunderstorms); read news headlines; looked at pictures of
Angelina Jolie, picked up driving tips and learned about bees. (How many flowers must a bee visit to make a pound of honey? Two million.)
The program is the brainchild of the Savage family, a group of marketers
and tech-savvy workers in Connecticut. They placed their first program in a
New York DMV branch in 1991, says Scott Savage, vice president and general
manager. MVN won’t divulge its annual sales figures, but the company has
grown from 3 to 25 employees, and is looking for a bigger office in the Norwalk
area, Savage says.
The company has screens in 350 DMV or Registry branches in a number states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, North
Carolina, Florida, Arizona and Tennessee. The 13 screens planned for the DMV’s Cranston headquarters will be the largest collection of
MVN screens in one location, Savage says. There are four other screens in the DMV’s Middletown and Woonsocket branches. It’s a great
deal for the state, says Strachan. Rhode Island pays nothing for the service, and DMV officials get final program approval, she says. Local
officials can also add key information from DMV fees to paperwork requirements to the program.
MVN makes money by selling ads to local companies. The ads which can cost from $200 to $900 a month, depending on branch traffic
and other factors are squeezed in between news, weather and entertainment updates. “It’s a perfect public-private
partnership,” says Savage. “There’s no cost to the taxpayers.” According to the MVN website, the programming “reduces the level of
anxiety” customers experience in line. The programming changes with the target audience and average wait times, Savage adds. Some
parts are in Spanish, French and even Russian. In Wakfield, information is repeated after about 40 minutes, although some of it is
repackaged in different ways.
On Thursday, some motorists read fat books. But others glanced at the two screens above them. “It was semi-entertaining,” said Warwick
driver Richard Pacino, who spent more than an hour in line. “It helped.”