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QA/QC measure for DMV titles saves 20,000 hours annually, has reduced errors from 30% to just 8%

ITD's Division of Motor Vehicles issues over 500,000 titles annually, so any improvement is likely to generate a significant savings in time, and the customer-service improvements impact drivers statewide.

The original title examination process relied heavily on manual checks and required an onerous verification process that took 15 full time dedicated examiners. ITD's DMV began exploring potential efficiencies in a process that had not been restructured in more than 20 years.

This was the backdrop to a change that will recoup approximately 20,000 hours of employee time this year.

"With more and more titles being issued every year and fewer resources available, we needed to find a more efficient way of processing titles while maintaining our high quality standard," explained DMV Program Specialist Tiffani Brown, the program's architect.

As a result, Brown established a Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) program recently for vehicle titles. Instead of the previous system, the new process created a quicker turnaround time using fewer resources.

The QA/QC program changed how and when the Idaho DMV did titles examination reviews. Gone was the time-consuming and labor-intensive review of every single title, replaced with a 10 percent statistically valid sample, reviewed post-issuance. All errors discovered in the process were gathered and used to provide feedback to county partners.

"The feedback report has been crucial in helping the counties understand and improve their error rates, which in turn helps increase the quality of future titles issued," Tiffani said.

To ensure the QA/QC program was a viable option, an in-depth analysis was done on almost 250,000 titles.

"We analyzed data related to changes being made between our county partners and our staff, error rates, recall potential, titles review times and more," Brown explained.

The research showed that fewer than 8 percent of errors had a significant bearing on a customer's ability to own, sell, or transfer a vehicle. With that in mind, the group concluded that the analysis gave credence to the QA/QC program's viability.

The results have been remarkable:

Since its implementation in September 2016, the QA/QC titles program has made significant cost and quality improvements for ITD. They have reduced the number of Titles Examiners from 15 to five full-time employees. The employees are re-tasked throughout the DMV to areas that are in need of additional support.

The overall quality of titles issued has similarly improved since the program started. Attributed specifically to the feedback reports that have established a better communication flow of information between ITD and county partners, total errors went from the baseline of 30 percent changes before the QA/QC process, to just over 8 percent, with error rates decreasing consistently each month.