< Back to front page Text size – +

You’ve got e-mail -- and you’d better renew your license

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 7, 2009 04:26 PM

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

With fiscal times tough, the Registry of Motor Vehicles decided to stop sending out letters informing people that their licenses were about to expire. But technology has stepped in to save the day, officials said today.

Registrar Rachel Kaprielian

The Registry of Motor Vehicles announced that people can use a free service – free to both the state and the driver -- to sign up to receive e-mails or phone or text messages reminding them their license is about to expire.

“We saved nearly $800,000 a year by eliminating paper courtesy mailings to our customers,” Registrar Rachel Kaprielian said in a statement. “But we found a way to restore this customer convenience at no cost to taxpayers."

Kaprielian said customers can join the new service at the Registry's website, www.mass.gov/rmv. The RMV Reminder Service, which will be powered by Massachusetts-based Sendza Inc., will be free because the notifications will be sponsored by Massachusetts businesses, she said.

The businesses will buy ads from Sendza that will accompany the reminder messages, said registrar's spokeswoman Ann Dufresne.

The service will notify people with either driver's licenses or Registry-issued IDs. The Registry, in developing the new service, put in place a framework that could allow the service to be expanded in the future to registration and inspection renewals, officials said.

All people need to do, officials said, is to sign up at least 45 days before the expiration of their license or ID. They will receive an electronic message at least 30 days before the expiration date that will tell them whether they should renew online or in person and whether their license can't be renewed at all because of outstanding parking tickets or excise taxes.

Licenses expire every five years on the driver's birthday. Every 10 years, a driver must go into a Registry office to get a new license picture taken. About 80,000 to 90,000 licenses expire each month.

The Registry stopped sending paper reminder notices in December. Dufresne said there hadn't been a significant increase in people failing to renew their licenses after that, but she said offering the new reminder system, which was officially launched today, is just "good customer service."

She emphasized that Sendza received only coded information from the Registry so it can never see driver's personal information. In addition, the company has an agreement with the Registry barring it from using any personal information of drivers.