New Partnership Improves Service and Saves Money

Minnesota Depatment of Public Safety
Tuesday, July 24, 2001

St. Paul, Minn. - Minnesota's Department of Public Safety's Driver and Vehicle Services Division (DVS) today announced the launch of an enhanced vehicle registration renewal program that streamlines the process, provides useful information to citizens and saves about $215,000 annually.

"This is a remarkable program that's easier to execute, more informative and more cost effective for Minnesotans," said Charlie Weaver, Commissioner of Public Safety. "I'd call it a win-win-win situation!"

DVS, in partnership with a private corporation named Imagitas, has significantly redesigned the vehicle registration renewal package. Minnesota vehicle owners now receive a packet containing a streamlined renewal form that speeds up processing and a four-page newsletter containing items of interest and public service messages from the Department of Public Safety. The packet also contains money-saving offers from private sector companies.

"Minnesota has a well-deserved reputation for marrying innovation, government programs and common sense," said Imagitas CEO Brett Matthews. "Imagitas has long been a trusted partner of government, and we're proud to work with Minnesota to forge this progressive private/public partnership."Significant cost savings are derived from the private sector offers inserted in the packets. The participating companies cover the $215,000 production and printing costs historically incurred by DVS. The savings has allowed DVS to reallocate funds to the processing portion of registration renewals - and revamped processes will result in a 15-day turnaround on what previously took up to 50 days.

"Governor Ventura has called for measurable improvements in service to Minnesota's citizens," said Brian Lamb, Director of Driver and Vehicle Services. "This partnership is an innovation and a great example of the Governor's Service, Not Systems philosophy."

The new program fully complies with the Driver's Privacy and Protection Act (DPPA), preventing any use of DVS registration information (names, addresses, etc.) by private companies for commercial purposes.

DVS handles more than 5 million vehicle transactions each year -- they include 1.7 million vehicle titles and about 4.5 million registrations - and issues more than a million driver's licenses and State ID's annually, collecting nearly a billion dollars in State revenue in the process.

Imagitas is a privately held government-solutions firm based in Waltham, Massachusetts.