KAILUA-KONA — One week after it was installed, a kiosk inside the Kona Safeway allowing drivers to renew vehicle registrations digitally is down for repairs.
A customer service representative with Intellectual Technology Inc., which partnered with Safeway to provide the Hawaii County Vehicle Registration and Licensing (VRL) Division with the kiosk, said the problem was centralized to the printer.
A technician had been contacted as of Thursday afternoon, but the customer service representative didn’t know when the technician would arrive to the site. She also was unable to provide a timetable for the return of the kiosk to service.
Kona’s DMV Now kiosk was the first such terminal installed in the state. Naomi O’Dell, VRL administrator, explained that was because cell reception is poor at the departmental offices inside the West Hawaii Civic Center, rendering machine testing difficult.
The kiosks are part of a statewide convenience initiative with roots dating back to last year, O’Dell added. They print off registration documents and stickers at the machine. The entire process can be completed inside of a few minutes.
Technicians installed several kiosks in Safeway stores across Oahu on Tuesday and a second kiosk on Hawaii Island at the Hilo Safeway store on Wednesday.
As of Thursday afternoon, there were no known reports of problems with DMV Now kiosks at any other locations.