OLYMPIA — The Washington State Department of Licensing will temporarily close its offices statewide to launch a new system.
Driver’s licensing offices will be closed between Aug. 31 and Sept. 3. Across the same dates, vehicle licensing offices will be unable to complete vehicle transactions. The change will also impact online services, which will begin as early as Aug. 26 and remain unavailable through Sept. 3.
By Sept. 4, all offices and online services will resume.
“We apologize for the inconvenience this closure may cause but look forward to providing the residents of Washington with a modern, user-friendly system for driver and vehicle services,” said DOL Director Teresa Berntsen in a press release. “This new system will allow for an improved customer experience with several additional online service options.”
New driver’s licenses will benefit from a modern protocol to assign numbers. Rather than basing license numbers on the person’s name and birthday, licenses will have the prefix “WDL” and include nine random letters and numbers. The new system is intended to protect personal information.
