After motorists complained when local Division of Motor Vehicles offices ran out of driver handbooks last summer, DMV has ordered a bigger press run for the new edition this winter.

The handbook explains highway signs, traffic laws and other rules of the road. Many North Carolinians pick up a copy to study before taking their driver’s license tests. Drivers sometimes consult the booklet to settle debates over when to stop for a school bus, or who has the right-of-way at a four-way-stop intersection.

The agency is waiting for printers to bid for a contract to produce 600,000 copies of the new edition, updated to reflect traffic-law changes enacted by the 2011 General Assembly. It should be available in a month to six weeks, DMV spokeswoman Marge Howell said. ... [MORE]

Don't plan on applying for a driver's license Monday, or doing anything else at your local DMV driver's license office.  All driver's license offices across the state will be closed for the day.

DMV says the shutdown is necessary as part of a nationwide system upgrade for the National Driver Register, a 50-state database with information about drivers whose licenses have been revoked or suspended, or who have been convicted of serious traffic violations.

Licence plate agencies -- where you get tags, titles and other DMV things for your car -- will be open as usual Monday.  But if you need a driver's license or permit or ID card from DMV, you'll have to wait until Tuesday.

Coming soon to your wallet: a black-and-white image of your face, photographed with a camera using multiple lenses, printed in multiple laser-engraved layers to give a sort-of three-dimensional effect.

On your driver's license. 

NCDOT says it has awarded a $47.5 million contract to MorphoTrak-Safran Group for new ID technology that will put the new photos on driver's licenses as part of an effort to make them more secure and tamper-proof. The cards will be made of a tougher polycarbonate material than the stuff they use now, to make it more durable with layers fused together so they cannot easily be peeled apart.

The cost to DMV will be $2.12 per card, a price hike of 27 cents.  DMV issues 2.4 million new and renewed licenses and ID cards each year.

The change takes effect by 2012.

Starting next week, the state Division of Motor Vehicles will stop handing out driver’s licenses at its offices in eight counties including Durham, Orange, Johnston and Franklin.

Drivers in those counties will start receiving their licenses by mail, after they apply for them at local DMV offices.

Wake County drivers were put on DMV’s mailing list in July, and a few other counties have made the switch since then to what DMV calls “central issuance” of driver’s licenses.

Next week DMV will make the change for its 12 driver license offices in Durham, Orange, Johnston, Franklin, Lee, Hoke, Vance and Cumberland counties.

The affected offices will close for a half day next week, on staggered schedules (see below), so DMV can install new computer software and remove the old machines that used to stamp out fresh, warm plastic every time you came in for a license.

DMV says it will screen all applications for new, duplicate and renewed licenses in its central Raleigh office, instead of local offices, so it can do a better job of reducing fraud and identity theft. Sixteen other states have begun or completed a shift to central issuance of driver's licenses.

You'll take the usual tests at the local office, where DMV will record your signature and snap your photo. You'll leave with a piece of paper that includes your name and address and an identifying bar code -- but not your photo and signature. ... [MORE]

As DMV deepens its scrutiny of your identity and your background (Road Worrier: "ID rules make getting a license tougher"), the odds increase that you'll be delayed -- for days or weeks, or worse -- in your simple quest to renew your license.

Maybe you'll be sent to the Social Security Administration to correct your birthdate or update your name change. Maybe you'll be told to settle accounts with, say, the state of Florida, which declined to renew your license in 1996 because of a 1977 DWI in Connecticut. (Or worse: Click the comment link below to share your DMV horror story.)

You probably can't avoid these bureaucratic surprises, but you can avoid letting your license expire while you resolve the underlying issues. 

Take DMV's advice: Don't wait. Renew your license early, before it expires.  If yours runs out on your next birthday, state law allows you to renew it up to 6 months before your birthday.