{"id":2245823,"date":"2024-05-16T10:37:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T14:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/real-id-uptake-only-21-penndot-halves-answering-time-on-calls\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T10:41:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T14:41:18","slug":"real-id-uptake-only-21-penndot-halves-answering-time-on-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/real-id-uptake-only-21-penndot-halves-answering-time-on-calls\/","title":{"rendered":"Only 21% adoption rate for REAL ID; PennDOT cuts call response time by half"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freal-id-uptake-only-21-penndot-halves-answering-time-on-calls%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2245823&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>PennDOT has observed an increase in Real IDs issued in Pennsylvania, but anticipates only a quarter of residents obtaining them by the 2025 \u200cfederal deadline. As of February, \u206320.8% of drivers chose REAL ID. By May, the uptake rate rose to 21.3%. Federal law mandates REAL ID for federal buildings and flights from May\u2064 7, 2025. Critics raise privacy concerns and doubt the \u200dlaw&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/liberal-delusion-in-lala-land\/\" title=\"Delusional Liberalism in a Fantasy World\">implementation due<\/a> to delays.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2014 PennDOT is noticing more Real IDs issued in the commonwealth \u2014 but expects only a quarter of residents to have them by the federal deadline in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>By February, 20.8% of Pennsylvania drivers opted in to REAL ID, about 2.1 million people. For May, the uptake rate has slightly improved to 21.3%, PennDOT Deputy Secretary Kara Templeton noted during the State Transportation Commission meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve anticipated a 25% adoption rate by the time of the compliance date, so we\u2019re still tracking to meet that target,\u201d Templeton said.<\/p>\n<p>Federal law will require a REAL ID to enter federal buildings or for commercial flights starting May 7, 2025, but non-REAL ID licenses can be used for state purposes. The mandate has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/barry-manilow-latest-broadway-superstar-to-test-positive-for-covid-19\/\" title=\"Barry Manilow Latest Broadway Superstar to Test Positive for COVID-19\">delayed multiple times due<\/a> to the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Critics of the federal law have raised <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/pennsylvania\/article_2b95b41c-cc90-11ec-96ad-4384abab88f3.html\">privacy concerns<\/a><\/strong> and argued that the tradition of delaying implementation means that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2024\/05\/real-id-deadline-will-never-arrive\/678370\/\">it won\u2019t happen at all<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/opinion-republicans-governors-must-use-their-newfound-boldness-to-uphold-sanctity-of-life\/\" title=\"OPINION: Republicans Governors Must Use Their Newfound Boldness To Uphold Sanctity Of Life\">federal law passed<\/a> in 2005 and was originally planned to take effect in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania isn\u2019t the only state with lagging numbers; other states like Illinois have seen <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/illinois\/article_fda0e92c-0d4d-11ef-b684-070be6f6e5df.html\">similarly low<\/a><\/strong> uptake numbers and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/28-year-old-illegal-arrested-for-allegedly-posing-as-high-school-student-for-a-year\/\" title=\"28-year-old arrested for pretending to be high school student for a year.\">federal government estimates<\/a> that 44% of people didn\u2019t yet have a REAL ID.<\/p>\n<p>PennDOT noted it plans to \u201cincrease communication efforts\u201d as the May 2025 deadline approaches. Residents cannot switch to a REAL ID online and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmv.pa.gov\/realid\/pages\/default.aspx?utm_medium=adwords&#038;utm_source=google&#038;utm_campaign=real_id_2019&#038;utm_content=text_ads\" title>m<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmv.pa.gov\/realid\/pages\/default.aspx?utm_medium=adwords&#038;utm_source=google&#038;utm_campaign=real_id_2019&#038;utm_content=text_ads\">ust go to a Driver Licensing Center<\/a><\/strong> to do so, though some can pre-verify their documents online if PennDOT already has them on file.<\/p>\n<p>For fiscal year 2023-24, PennDOT has issued over 207,000 REAL IDs.<\/p>\n<p>Officials also noted the switch from a vendor handling customer calls to doing it in-house has improved wait times.<\/p>\n<p>The outsourced call center, PennDOT noted, lost almost half its staff during the pandemic \u201cand they were unable to recover,\u201d leading to \u201cinsufficient staffing\u201d to meet customer service standards. In 2023, the agency expanded four regional call centers and increased staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have seen some improvements since that transition,\u201d Templeton said. \u201cOur average speed of answer has decreased \u2026 also, the average abandon rate has improved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By April 23, answering phones went from 35 seconds under the former vendor to 14 seconds; abandoned calls dropped from 1,769 to 1,287 per day; and workers have gone from 26 in January to more than 70.<\/p>\n<p>PennDOT expects to get to 108 workers in the call centers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe continue to see our statistics enhanced and improved as (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bidens-emergency-baby-formula-website-has-been-a-total-disaster\/\" title=\"Biden\u2019s Emergency Baby Formula Website Has Been A Total Disaster\">customer service representatives<\/a>) become more confident and experienced,\u201d Templeton said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PennDOT sees an increase in Real ID issuance in Pennsylvania, with 20.8% of drivers opting in by February, totaling about 2.1 million residents. However, only a quarter of residents are expected to have Real IDs by the federal deadline in 2025. The uptake rate has slightly improved by May<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2245824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24037853686201-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2245823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24037853686201-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2245824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}