Temecula’s DMV will be open an extra hour every morning starting May 1 to accommodate customers shifted from the closing Escondido office.
The Escondido DMV, which is closing May 10 due to a parking dispute, also will shift its 40 part- and full-time staffers to the Temecula, Oceanside and Poway offices until a new location opens sometime in the next year, said Jessica Gonzalez, a DMV spokeswoman.
The Escondido DMV, at 725 N. Escondido Blvd., is closing in May amid a dispute over sufficient parking at its current location. DMV officials are looking for a new location, but expect the search and reopen to take between six and nine months, Gonzalez said.
An average of 627 customers visit the Escondido location each day, served by 34 full-time and six part-time employees.
The Temecula office serves an average of 810 customers served daily; Oceanside serves 724; and Poway serves 550.
Starting May 1—before the Escondido office closes—the three nearest offices in Temecula, Oceanside and Poway will begin opening at 7 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 8 a.m. on Wednesday, an hour earlier than usual.
After the Escondido office closes May 10, its employees will be redistributed among the nearby offices to help with the additional customers.
Gonzalez is encouraging customers to make appointments online instead of just walking in, which she said can be the difference between waiting five minutes and waiting an hour.
The summer months are particularly busy for teen drivers trying to get their licenses, she said, but those appointments already must be made online.
A second Escondido DMV office is slated to open in the summer of 2015, but a site has not yet been finalized.
