Texas DPS cancels driver license appointments across state, citing system outage

Chase Rogers, Austin American-Statesman
Updated ·2 min read
2
Driver's license offices across Texas have broadly canceled service appointments with customers this week because of problems caused by a Texas Department of Public Safety system update that began over the Labor Day weekend.
Driver's license offices across Texas have broadly canceled service appointments with customers this week because of problems caused by a Texas Department of Public Safety system update that began over the Labor Day weekend.

Driver's license offices across Texas have broadly canceled service appointments with customers this week, citing an ongoing computer system outage caused by a system update that began over the Labor Day weekend.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which handles the issuance of driver's licenses, announced Wednesday that it was canceling all driver license appointments scheduled for that morning. In a news release, the DPS said the outage impacted all driver's license services, including renewing or replacing a driver's license or identification card, obtaining a driver record and verifying eligibility.

The DPS has continued to cancel appointments since Wednesday. Seemingly all appointments on Thursday were canceled, as were appointments on Friday. Whether the DPS had an estimated timeline to address the issue was unclear until Friday evening, when the agency stated on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the system would be up and running by Monday, Sept. 11.

The agency initially stated on X that offices would be closed until 2 p.m. Friday. Some offices offering additional services were open late Friday afternoon, but the driver's license division remained closed.

DPS officials did not respond to an American-Statesman inquiry Friday.

According to the news release, the DPS has attempted to notify customers of the cancellations ahead of their appointments via phone and email. Affected customers will be given "priority rebooking" once the system is operational.

The DPS said there have been no security issues reported as part of the outage.

All offices providing driver's license services had been closed to appointments except for three in North Texas: the Garland Mega Center, Fort Worth Mega Center and Carrollton Mega Center.

Editor's note: This article was changed after its initial publication to include a statement the Texas Department of Public Safety published late Friday afternoon regarding the agency's driver license system outage.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Here's why DPS has been canceling driver license appointments across the state