New Hampshire DMV Drops Average Wait Times With New Appointment System

Since moving to a fully appointment-based system in November 2025, New Hampshire's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has reduced average in-person wait times to less than 10 minutes across its 14 locations.

DMV Director John Marasco invited New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte to the DMV on Wednesday, April 1, to observe the new system. He highlighted the state's efforts to improve efficiency and ease of interacting with DMV services. Today, this system has reduced the average customer wait time from 45 minutes to eight minutes.

"Our safety monitors who work in our locations around the state have told me, especially in Manchester, in our busier locations, people come in and they stand there for a minute, they look around, and they may not have been in our location for 10 years, and they're back for a license renewal, and they'll say to the safety monitor, 'What happened here? Where is everybody?'" Marasco said in a statement shared with News 9 WMUR.

"Really, this is about customer service, ... cutting wait times, making it easier for you to interact with the state," Ayotte said in a statement.

News 9 spoke with a few DMV customers who noted faster scheduling and shorter or no waiting times compared to the past.

The DMV projects handling approximately 400,000 in-person transactions this year, thanks to this new system.