SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Some Georgia drivers are frustrated because a planned upgrade to tag and car registration services started earlier than expected in some counties.
Officials announced earlier this month that the entire statewide system for car registrations and tag renewals will be down for four days from Friday, May 24, to Monday, May 27. The state is upgrading the new Georgia Driver Record and Integrated Vehicle Enterprise System (DRIVES).
On Thursday, Channel 2 Action News got several calls about closed offices even though the upgrade wasn't supposed to start until Friday.
Channel 2's Craig Lucie was in Fulton County, where some drivers took the day off to get paperwork filed, only to find the system was already unavailable at their tag office.
Kay Wright is one of many who showed up at the South Fulton service center to renew her license plate, but was turned away.
"The security guard said, 'Closed. No questions. Come back Thursday,'" Wright said.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Man claims to have bomb, threatening to blow up metro Atlanta Kroger, police say
- Georgia students' senior prank nearly cost them their graduation
- Former cheerleading coach arrested, accused of stealing $15K+ from cheerleaders
"It's a big inconvenience," another driver said. "I'm trying to get a truck situated."
The upgrade is intended to cut down on long lines for license and registration renewals. But for people trying to get business done Thursday, the early start was a problem.
"I did hear on the news," Rosalyn Curington said. "I didn't know it was today though. I thought it was tomorrow through Monday."
Lucie discovered that if you visit Georgiadrives,com, the website says services will be unavailable statewide starting Friday. But smaller print below says that some county tag and motor vehicle office hours may be reduced in preparation for the upgrade as early as May 21.
That's what happened at the South Fulton County location and several other metro-area tag offices.
The system will be down through Monday, May 27.
Cox Media Group
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/6IRW26KKM5GAHASQVE4WNYIDKA.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XY3KCGC55ZFEHPYZGIAH5WRP7U.jpeg)
:quality(70)/d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/04-17-2024/t_8adc8880fdbe45b592c0ef82cd01ad9e_name_5PP_TEACHER_GRADES_HENRY_PKG_transfer_frame_8.jpeg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/V7MHSF7DKVC4HHS3X3CZ2KAO2M.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/PG47OAJKSRCEFLLY6GL6NDESJA.jpeg)