BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Kerri Norton knows what it's like to wait up to six hours and longer for a car tag in Jefferson County.

Norton, who lives in Birmingham, remembers waiting in lines "that wrapped around the building." That was a year ago, she said.

Today, however, was a different experience.

Norton said her visit to the courthouse for car tags was "extremely good, unbelievably good."

The line moved "very quickly" and once she got to the counter the services took 10 minutes, she said. "Today was the absolutely the quickest," Norton said. "This was the best."

Those are the kinds of comments Jefferson County officials are beginning to hear after several years of complaints about the car tag lines in the county's Department of Revenue.

Last week the county went to a new Motor Vehicle Registration System, commonly referred to as "TagIt".

While some lines still exist, the new system has dramatically reduced the car tag lines and wait for services in most cases, county officials, employees and customers all agree.

"We've made the investment in the equipment and the employees and we want to get this thing fixed once and for all," said County Manager Tony Petelos.

New equipment

The car tag lines have been one of the most visible signs of the county's financial woes. Employees were laid off countywide, but effects showed up more in the revenue department as lines snaked down the hallways and out into Linn Park.

The problems were exacerbated by the lack of modern equipment as revenue department employees worked on a 30-year mainframe and antiquated printers.

That's all changed.

The new system, which went live last week, includes bar code scanners, document scanners, personal computers with new monitors, and laser printers. Images are maintained in the transaction history file, which includes all supporting documentation.

Revenue Director Travis Hulsey said clerks no longer vacate their station to make copies during the transaction. In the past, workers had to get up two or three times during one transaction to get printouts, he said.

Hard copy records of the transactions which previously required converting to images at a future date have been eliminated.

The county has also purchased smart screen monitors which were installed in the hallways to provide information on driver's license renewals and replacements, tag registration and title registrations.

The investment in equipment cost $300,000 and has been installed at all county locations where motor vehicles services are offered: the downtown and Bessemer Courthouses and the Center Point location.

"We went robust with the equipment," Peteos said.

Some workers spent up to eight weeks and at least 3,000 hours of training time on the new equipment, he said.

The new system, he said, was a collaborative effort with Tuscaloosa County, who provided license for the software and employees for the training, and the Jefferson County Commissioners who provided the resources. He added that Nitorco, Inc., an Atlanta-based company, provided the conversion of data and implementation of the software.

Hulsey said he's glad that the front counters are now staffed with 18 new hires to assist residents.

"Efficiencies will be further strengthened" as workers get more familiar with the system, he said.