Before Gov. David Ige extended the COVID-19 emergency orders, allowing more time for driver's license renewals, Honolulu officials were warning motorists with expired licenses about potential fines.
The extension caught the city by surprise. It had been preparing to deal with thousands of driver's licenses expiring at midnight Monday.
Ige’s last-minute decision gives drivers a reprieve, but the city is still encouraging everyone affected to renew their licenses as soon as possible.
Nola Miyasaki, director of the Honolulu Department of Customer Services, says you shouldn’t wait — it could cost you more time and money later.
"Anyone who has an expired driver's license will have to start all over and take the written test and take the road test as if they never had a license," Miyasaki said. "For those people that intend to renew their license and are holding an expired license, it's really important to get in as soon as possible to avoid any fees and to avoid ultimately having to retake the driver's license test."
The city is also working through the thousands of licenses and IDs from 2020 through September 2021 that have expired and have not yet been renewed.
But here’s the deal: during October, November, and December, about 6,000 driver's licenses are set to expire each month. So those waiting could be up against those residents as well — make an appointment while you can.
"We've done our best to get rid of the backlog that came over from 2020 and we managed to bring that down," she told Hawaiʻi Public Radio. "We're really prepared for any kind of surge that's going to come in. We have maximized our counter availability, we staffed up all of our driver license locations as much as possible. We've got extended hours during the week for the driver's license centers and our satellite city halls. We have Saturdays, full days for the satellite city halls that do driver license renewals."
Miyasaki says appointments on the city’s Aloha-Q reservation system are plentiful right now, and motorists should be able to make an appointment for a few days from now.
The current emergency order is in place until Nov. 30, unless the state adds another extension.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 4, 2021.
