MINNEAPOLIS — After seven years of troubles and troubleshooting, MNLARS is giving the state a Minnesota Goodbye. If you don't know what that is, it's when two people part slowly, prolonging their farewell with conversation in between.
Scott Lambert said it's going to be a long two years or so while the state parts with MNLARS. As the president of the MN Auto Dealers Association, Lambert said he's been upset with the system for quite a while.
"Nobody is madder about this than dealers," Lambert said. "When they think about $100 million over seven years and we've got nothing to show for it."
Lambert quickly rattled off all the things that went wrong under MNLARS.
"You couldn't transfer vanity plates or even like handicap plates or specialized plates--couldn't get that done," he said. "[The] system for calculating vehicle taxes did not work."
So with the dawn of a new era under FAST Enterprises, Lambert said for the auto dealers at least, they're cautiously allowing optimism to re-enter their vocabulary.
"They've got a new vendor called FAST, they helped put together the driver's license system," Lambert said. "They seem to know what they're doing."
FAST Enterprises isn't fixing anything. They're replacing the whole system. The cost of that operation is $33.9 million.
So how will this affect you as a consumer? Governor Walz said in a news release that if everything goes right, you wouldn't notice any interruptions to the services.
In theory, the new system will allow you to get vehicle titles, license plates and tabs on time and without errors. The contract with FAST Enterprises is a five-year one, but they said they will be rolling out the changes within the next 26 months, with a Phase I deadline ending in 16 months.
FAST Enterprises spokesperson Ken Buna said in a brief statement: "FAST is excited about this opportunity and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership with the State."