Department of Revenue faces lack of License Offices bids for the first time ever

Officials at the Department of Revenue (DOR) Motor Vehicle Driver License (MVDL) Division are facing difficulty attracting and retaining independent contractors to operate license offices, even in larger markets like St. Louis City, which have traditionally been more profitable.

Contracts are awarded via a competitive bidding process, but that process has seen fewer and fewer bids over time, with 26 offices only receiving a singular bid, and three not even receiving one bid. The three that still need a bid are located in downtown St. Louis City, Forsyth, and Grant City.

“It has always been difficult to receive multiple bids in our smaller rural offices with fewer transactions and this year, we noticed a trend where even our larger offices were getting fewer operators willing to submit bids,” said MVDL Director Ken Struemph. “Even with the extra fees generated from online renewals, these contracted License Offices have not been able to keep up with increasing costs”.

Though many Missourians are also feeling the effects of high inflation, this is an all-time first for the DOR. The MVDL division of DOR has noticed less interest in operators willing to submit bids for contracted License Offices. Additionally, several contractors are willing to give up their offices and refuse to sign contract extensions. While it is not new that it is harder to receive bids in smaller rural offices, this is the first time MVDL has struggled to obtain multiple bidders for the larger more populated offices, and rarely has a contractor given an office back and refused to sign an extension. 

“My number-one goal since becoming the DOR director has been to improve customer service for our citizens. To do that our contract License Offices must remain financially viable. Higher costs and high staff turnover have negatively impacted on their ability to serve customers. Our License Offices need a fee increase in order to attract and retain knowledgeable staff who can process transactions in an accurate and timely manner” DOR Director Wayne Wallingford stated.

House Bill 424, which was introduced last legislative session was a much-needed fee increase bill that also created the “License Office Distribution Fund”. The House bill passed 14-0 in committee and the full House perfected the bill with 85 yes, 50 no, and 13 present. SB366 was passed 4-3 in the Senate Emerging Issues committee and at the end of session the conference committee report was signed and sitting on the legislator’s desks, but it never received a vote before a Senate filibuster prohibited any votes the final two days of session. This fee increase would ensure the longevity and health of all license offices in the state of Missouri.

Missouri Association of License Offices (MALO) President Ryan Williams expressed his concern saying, “Processing the MORE renewals has been a lifesaver, but our members are still struggling to keep up with the rising costs of inflation. License Offices have only had one fee increase since 1999, and we all know inflation has risen quite a bit since then. While most businesses can raise their prices to keep up with inflation…License Offices cannot. Rent and wage increases over the past three years have made keeping up with expenses almost impossible. Without a fee increase, I’m concerned numerous communities across Missouri may not have anyone willing to run their local License Office”.

For more information on licensing offices, please visit the DOR website or the Missouri Association of License Office website.

Click here for the current list of offices coming up for bid.

Click here to see past bid results for offices.

Click here to submit a bid for an office.

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Below is a list of bid results from all License Office awarded contracts from December 2022 to July 2023.

51 contracts have been awarded since December 2022 

• 3 offices received no bids 
• 6 Offices had to be rebid after the first posting 
• 26 offices received only 1 bid 
• 16 offices received more than 1 bid

Offices receiving no bids-

 St. Louis Downtown-

• When was the Office bid, extend, and re-bid-
• § Initial: RFPSDOR230079 – Issued 4/13/23 Closed 4/26/23
• § Rebid: RFPSDOR230080 – Issued 5/10/23 Closed 5/23/23 – Extended to 6/7/23
• § Planning Rebid to Issue 9/6/23
• Public Notice sent out — 4/25/2023 and 5/5/2023 (Sent to City Legislators/Called them as well)
• Elected officials notified (Legislators or County/City)- 4/25/2023 and 5/2/2023- Also, called Casey Millburg-Policy Director for Mayor Jones

STOPGAP MEAUSRES- Notified public about other adjacent offices they could utilize and contacted those offices and moved more workstations to those offices to handle extra volume.

Forsyth-

• When was the Office bid, extend, and re-bid-
• § Initial: RFPSDOR230087 – Issued 5/10/23 Closed 5/23/23 – Extended to 6/7/23
• § Planning Rebid to Issue 9/6/23
• Public Notice sent out — 5/26/2023 (Was sent to the Legislators of the area)
• Elected officials notified (Legislators or County/City)- 5/26/2023

STOPGAP MEAUSRES- Current contractor agreed to keep office open until a new contractor could be found.

Grant City-

• When was the Office bid, extend, and re-bid-
• § Initial: RFPSDOR230040 – Issued 1/11/23 Closed 1/25/23– Extended to 2/8/23
• § Rebid: RFPSDOR230048 – Issued 3/08/23 Closed 3/21/23
• Public Notice sent out —
• Elected officials notified (Legislators or County/City) – numerous times between January and March of 2023.

STOPGAP MEAUSRES- Notified public about other adjacent offices they could utilize.

Offices that had to be rebid

1. Arcadia Valley (Non-Compliant First Bid)
2. Buffalo (Non-Compliant First Bid)
3. Rockport (No bid on first RFP)
4. Gainesville (Non-Compliant First Bid)
5. Macon (MO BUYS Issue)
6. Savannah (Non-Compliant First Bid)

Offices receiving only one bid

1. Fredericktown
2. Brookfield
3. Carrollton
4. Eminence
5. Maryville
6. Monroe City
7. Edina
8. North County
9. Viburnum
10. Warrenton
11. Vienna
12. Clinton
13. Bethany
14. Mexico
15. Bowling Green
16. Rogersville
17. Kingston
18. Memphis
19. Richmond
20. Steelville
21. Milan
22. Paris
23. Stockton
24. Van Buren
25. Chillicothe
26. Dexter

Offices not signing extensions and shutting down before new vendor could start

1. Chesterfield –closed from 12/28/2022 to 5/14/2023
2. Florissant – closed from 7/2/2023to 1/2/2023 — open for appointment only 1/3/2023 to 5/16/2023
3. Fredericktown – 8/26/2022 to 4/17/2023
4. Mountain Grove – Closes 7/28/23 we expect a new vendor in place in the Nov./Dec. timeframe.
5. Savannah – 12/30/2022 to 5/9/2023
6. Trenton – 5/31/2023 to 8/14/2023
7. Van Buren – 5/23/2023 to 6/27/2023