Going to Glenwood Springs on a weekday to get a driver license is a real challenge — particularly and ironically for people who don’t have a license.

This is the case for Kevin James, a former prisoner of 12 years. At 45, James lives at a halfway house in Rifle and everything he does must be done under the parameters of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Despite these challenges, James works for a sand and gravel supplier in Silt. He also just bought a 2005 Ford F150 — a truck he can’t drive until he of course gets his license.

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James said on Monday that Gabe Cohen, a well-known peer support specialist and executive director of Discovery Cafe, is personally going to drive James in James’ F150 to the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles in Glenwood to endure the process of getting his license. The trip must be approved by the DOC and James’ boss at the gravel pit, and he has but one day to get everything done.

“There’s a lot of asking I have to do with the people in my life,” he said.

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In Garfield County, an area that encompasses 2,956 square miles and has more than 62,000 residents, Glenwood Springs is the sole place a person can go to get a license or identification card. There’s also a satellite location in Rifle, but it does not offer identification services.

But what if the DMV came to you? What if people like James didn’t have to miss a day’s work just to get his license back?

Enter the mobile DMV.

Between 9 a.m.-4 p.m. March 15, a mobile DMV operated out of a giant bus called “DMV2GO” is coming to the Silt Municipal Building at 237 N. Seventh St. Using this office on wheels, people can acquire their first-time Colorado Driver License or identification card (the mobile DMV does not offer actual driver tests). The service also offers driver license and ID card renewals, motor vehicle records, Colorado Roads and Community Safety Act services and more.

It’s noteworthy that James’ place of work is right across the Colorado River from the Silt Municipal Building.

“It’d help me tremendously with my situation,” James said of simply using the mobile DMV as opposed to going to Glenwood.

DMV and Tax Communications Manager Derek Kuhn said in an email that DMV2GO launched in August 2022 in Pagosa Springs. Archuleta County Commissioner Warren Brown had previously reached out to the DMV about bringing driver license services to the area because many residents had to drive long distances to obtain these essential services.

“We believe DMV2GO provides underserved Coloradans with a more convenient, more personable way to DMV,” Kuhn said.

According to DMV2GO data, it helped about 5,000 people in Colorado and issued more than 3,000 driver licenses or IDs between July 2021-June 2022. Between December 2021-July 2022, the service traveled 35,000 miles within the state. It was even deployed during the Marshall Fire of 2021 and issued 160 licenses/IDs to survivors.

Kuhn said one of the Colorado DMV’s goals is to provide all Coloradans with convenient access to DMV services — whether that’s online, in-office or on the go. While it’s not feasible for the DMV to operate an office in every Colorado community, the mobile DMV can help rural Coloradans, like those in Silt and Garfield County, get the services they need.

“The DMV2GO program needs good, local partners like Silt Town Clerk Sheila McIntyre and Silt Town Administrator Jeff Layman,” Kuhn said. “It would be much harder to help Coloradans without that crucially important local connection flagging a need for services and then helping coordinate a DMV2GO visit.” 

Kuhn said the mobile DMV is not appointment based, which means people need to get there early to avoid longer waits.

“Fortunately, we’ve switched to an appointment only model so most people are in and out of the DMV in under 30 min,” Kuhn said. “But from my perspective, a long line at a DMV2GO event is a good thing because that means we are really helping people who need DMV services.”

In Cohen’s experience in operating Discovery Cafe, a place that connects disenfranchised people to a plethora of social services and amenities, he said there are people in Rifle who do need a state ID, or help figuring out how to reinstate their license.

“And the feedback I get is that many of these people are told to ‘get online and make an appointment,’” Cohen said. “But many of the folks I deal with aren’t computer literate and really need an actual person to speak to.

“So then we have to make arrangements for transportation.”

Cohen said having mobile DMV visits on a more regular basis can be a “tremendous resource.”

“I think they should have a DMV caseworker that’s mobile and could make home visits,” he said. “Not everyone has easy access to public transportation in this valley. Could be a case-by-case basis.”

McIntyre was getting enough phone calls and inquiries from locals about DMV services that, after hearing about the mobile service also coming to De Beque, the town decided to reach out.

Silt anticipates that people from Rifle and New Castle will also likely come to use the mobile DMV.

“It would be nice to have some of this service close by,” McIntyre said. “It’s not a huge amount (of inquiries) but it shows an interest here in town.”

The mobile DMV sparked interest from James, who does agree the mobile DMV is going to help more people than one would think.

He said from his experience, particularly with other guys at the halfway house, getting to Glenwood during the week is really challenging for a lot of people — including himself.

“I’ve had my bumps in the road with personal relationships and the whole idea of coming into a society that lives by a different set of social dynamics, but all in all I’m doing well,” he said. “I’m driving as the situation allows me to.”