Driver’s License System Upgrade Causes Canceled Appointments Across State

As of Thursday afternoon, the state of Texas website featured a red banner alert to let visitors know that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) online driver’s license and ID services were still unavailable after a Wednesday notice of cancellations for online appointments.

DPS said in a news release that the cancellations were “due to the ongoing upgrade of the driver license system. The upgrade is impacting all driver license services including renewing or replacing a driver license or identification card, obtaining a driver record and verifying eligibility.”

The upgrade began on Labor Day weekend, according to DPS, with offices closed Sept. 1 in order to start. Texas by Texas (TXT), the mobile app where appointments can be made, and texas.gov applications were also affected.

The system continued to be unavailable as of Thursday, according to texas.gov.

DPS by the numbers, according to a recent request for offers:

• DPS runs 233 driver’s license offices.
• The department provided license, ID card and other services to more than 16 million customers in 2021 and 2022.
• There are 2,707 full-time equivalent positions in the driver’s license offices.