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If you are going to be renewing your driver’s license or vehicles tags in the near future, you might want to budget some extra time, just in case, because aging computers at the state agency have become unpredictable.

Taking a number at a Tax Collectors officer doesn’t guarantee you speedy service when you are renewing your drivers license or vehicle tag.  An aging state computer server has been crashing, putting motorists and clerks like Andrea Daughtry in limbo.

“It come can come back on in a minute, it can come back on in an hour, it can come back on in five hours” says Daughtry.

When it works, it works. “ten minutes, maybe” said one customer when asked how long it tool to renew her drivers license.

But Tax Collector Doris Maloy says the crashes are happening with more frequency.

“We’ve know for years that they have an outdated system. They are very sorry, of course, that this is happening. It couldn’t happen at a worse time” says Maloy

And the Tax Collectors, many of whom are running for re-election, are quick to point out that this is the state’s problem, not theirs.”

The problem has been on going, but got worse back in April. That’s when the state decided to move its computer center out to this bat infested office complex, says the head of the Department of Highway Safety.”

“I think that’s what initiated the, you know, pretty quick or consistent outages for awhile” says Rhodes.

Lawmakers have already given the agency six point five million to upgrade its computers, but rhodes says replacement is taking time.

“I’m constantly on it and so they systems are working now, but we just confident that we can keep everything going” she says.

The new equipment isn’t expected to be to be up and running until next June, making a sign in one office proclaiming “Quick and Easy Service” questionable.

In a statement released this afternoon, the Department says in part:

“the number of department customers continues to grow each day and, on average, the department and its partners process more than six million inquiries and 2.5 million driver license, registration and title transactions each month. We are working as fast as we can to get the system replaced with a newer, more stable environment” (Beth Frady, Communications Director, DHSMV