Oregon's DMV offers Video-Proctored Exams to Streamline Services

In 2020, Oregon made a shift to digital services to simplify processes like replacing identification cards, paying fees, and obtaining records. Following this move, the state's transportation department now offers video-proctored exams for the written driving test.

Already a staple for online education, video-proctored exams are usually timed and proctored remotely via software or video chat. Under this new system, young residents can take the written exam at home. Not only is this more convenient for the test-taker, but it can also help relieve wait times at brick-and-mortar DMV locations.

Benjamin Khan, the innovation and planning manager for the Department of Transportation, says, "We have a lot of young adults who come in multiple times to take that knowledge test, and so we want to provide a way for them to do that from home, and that way we can serve more customers in our field offices for other types of transactions."

Implementing video-proctored exams is just one strategy in the state's move towards digital services. The department is also working on a plan to launch quick-service kiosks, which will be located in grocery stores and other public places throughout Oregon. There are currently fifty kiosks planned for the initial launch, with more possibly in the works. The goal is to provide seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day service for simple transactions.

DMV offices are notoriously overtaxed throughout the country. Oregon began looking into online services to unburden DMV locations within the state. When the first phase of the digital upgrade was completed in the summer of 2020, the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles recorded hundreds of thousands of transactions that would normally have occurred at a physical DMV office. Residents have responded positively to the upgrade, suggesting a clear need within the community for access to a more streamlined, convenient process.