Division of Vehicles updates committee on plates, mobile services, e-lien and real-time insurance project

Diane Williams, director of vehicles for the Kansas Department of Revenue, gave the Committee on Transportation the Division of Vehicles’ annual, high-level update, outlining operations, recent changes and ongoing projects.

"I'm Diane Williams. I serve as the director of vehicles and have been in that role for about a year now," Williams said at the start of her presentation. She described the division’s business units—vehicle services (titles and registration), dealer licensing (2,472 registered dealers reported), training and quality assurance, product integration and remote services. Williams said the division resumed in-person classroom training for staff and county partners, and that those trainers also perform quality-assurance reviews.

Key program updates included mobile driver's-license services (the division issued 3,399 CDL, driver's license or ID credentials in 2025), ongoing oversight of private driving schools (53 schools, 835 instructor licenses), and two IT-driven projects: a real-time insurance project done with the Department of Insurance that staff expect to go live in July, and an in‑house electronic e-lien system that will allow lenders to file liens electronically at purchase and remove them when loans are paid off.

Staff also reported on driver-services operations: the Driver Solutions contact center holds official driving records for nearly 2.3 million Kansas license/CDL/ID holders, and the division helped implement Senate Bill 500 changes affecting license-restriction processes. Williams said the division is proud of its real‑ID participation: roughly 87.6% of Kansas license/ID holders have the gold star.

Committee members asked several operational questions. On whether constituents pay for license plates, Williams said constituents pay registration fees and personal property taxes but the state furnishes the plates (the department will confirm details of ownership). On an allegation that the Department sold driver's-license information and made $1.4 million, staff said the department does sell certain driver-data products—primarily to insurance companies and for public-safety recall notification—and characterized the fee as covering data-hosting costs; they offered to provide more detailed documentation later: "I would be happy to get some more information on that for you," a department representative said.

Members also raised county funding pressures for tag offices and proposals to add county facility fees or privatize services. Williams acknowledged shortfalls and said the division will work with counties and the committee on solutions but was not ready to discuss detailed proposals in the public hearing.

What’s next: staff agreed to provide contact lists of regional managers, follow up on record‑sale details and continue to brief the committee as the e-lien and real-time insurance projects progress. The presentation concluded and the committee moved on to other business.