LUMBERTON – The commissioner of the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles spelled out some of the agency’s latest technologies on Thursday morning in hopes of encouraging more people to use the online services that have become available through the agency in recent years.

As commissioner, Wayne Goodwin oversees the daily operations of the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles, including vehicle registrations, driver licenses, vehicle safety and emissions inspections as well as activities to halt vehicle theft and identity fraud.

Goodwins spoke at length of the new technologies during Thursday’s meeting of the Robeson County Vision Zero Task Force at the county’s Emergency Operations Center on Legend Drive.

“DMV – it is perhaps one of the most public-facing agencies not only in the state but in the country,” Goodwin said to start off his presentation. “And, in that regard, you interact with the public a great deal, and you also get to experience a lot of what the public has to say about those interactions.”

Since the year 2000, he said, North Carolina has gained more than 3 million new citizens. “Also, since the year 2000,” he added, “we only have three net new driver’s licenses offices in the state. I’m no mathematician, but I know three net new offices won’t cut it with 3 million new people in the state.

“Along with everybody else,” he said, “we have been doing our best to modernize. Something, which I think, has helped move us further along the modernization track are two things.”

Those include smartphones. Recent studies indicate that about 92% of Americans have a smartphone or have access to one in their home, he quoted.

Editors Note: This is a developing story. Find the complete report in Saturday’s Robesonian, delivered to subscribers or found in retail racks around the county.