Good news — a SLO County DMV will now be open Saturdays

Here’s good news for anyone looking to renew a driver license or register a car.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles office in San Luis Obispo will keep its doors open on Saturdays — starting this weekend.

The goal of Saturday hours is “to ease wait times and offer customers another option to visit a field office,” Jessica Gonzalez, assistant deputy director of public affairs for the DMV, wrote in an email to The Tribune.

Starting Saturday, the San Luis Obispo DMV office will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, according San Luis Obispo DMV website. Customers can schedule a Saturday appointment up to 90 days in advance, although appointments are not necessary.

The San Luis Obispo office, located at 3190 South Higuera St., is one of the 60 DMV locations in California that will begin offering services on Saturdays.

But this is not the first time the agency has offered that option.

Gonzalez said the DMV offered Saturday hours at 60 locations in January, when California unveiled the REAL ID driver’s license, but discontinued that option in April because not many people were going.

In June, 40 DMV locations were open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday twice a month in June and 43 locations in July.

The agency chose which offices will offer Saturday hours based on current wait times, proximity to other offices that offer Saturday hours, the volume of workloads and “sufficient office and parking lot accommodations,” Gonzalez said.

The only service that won’t be provided Saturdays at the San Luis Obispo DMV is behind-the-wheel driving exams.

DMV offices in Paso Robles and Santa Maria will remain closed on weekends.

For more information, call 800-777-0133 or visit dmv.ca.gov.

This story was originally published August 2, 2018 at 1:36 PM.