Beat of Hawaii editor Jeff handed his brand-new redesigned Hawaii driver’s license to the TSA officer last week at Lihue Airport, expecting nothing unusual. The document reader ran facial recognition, completed its process, and indicated he was done. Instead of waving him through, the TSA officer repeatedly told him to stand still.
It turned out the officer had never seen the newly designed Hawaii driver’s license, and like many Hawaii residents, didn’t know what to make of it.
At first Jeff assumed some routine verification was taking place. The document reader had already finished with him, yet he remained standing at the podium, holding up the line, without any explanation. More than five minutes passed before a supervisor was finally called over. She looked at his new Hawaii driver’s license for roughly ten seconds, said he was good, so he continued through security. Rob had gone through ahead and had no idea why any of this was happening.
What Hawaii’s new driver’s license looks like and when it arrived.
Jeff’s took noticeably longer to arrive than previous renewals, and when it finally showed up, it was immediately obvious something had changed big-time. The important photo is black and white, laser engraved into the card rather than printed on it, and the colors are much more subdued than the saturated tropical design Hawaii residents have carried for years.
The state says the redesigned card incorporates more than 50 security features and is built entirely from polycarbonate instead of laminated construction. It’s true that the old ones often delaminated before they expired. It is Hawaii’s first major driver’s license redesign since 2009 and looks nothing like the version most residents have been carrying.
Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services said more than 50,000 residents who renewed beginning in mid-May started receiving the redesigned licenses on July 3. Jeff’s arrived on July 10, and he went through the TSA checkpoint at Lihue two days later, just days after the rollout.
What Hawaii says the new license fixed at TSA checkpoints.
The redesign followed a run of reports from Hawaii residents whose licenses would not scan at TSA checkpoints, rental car counters, and other businesses using electronic ID readers. We can’t confirm that personally, however. Those reports involved the older cards the redesign replaces.
Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in May that the failures involved a small batch of cards with minor production irregularities, combined with mismatched updates between Hawaii’s barcode data formats and TSA’s credential readers. Officials said they were receiving about 15 reports a month statewide and expected the nearly completed upgrade to Hawaii’s driver licensing system to resolve them.
The new design incorporates holographic images compatible with TSA’s ID verification systems, resolving the scanning issues previously reported.
Those two explanations describe different repairs. Honolulu blamed a mismatch in how data is formatted in the barcode, and a holographic image does not change how that data is written or read.
TSA describes the machine at the podium as scanning and analyzing the ID, confirming traveler flight details, and flagging fraudulent credentials. The newer units go further and take a live photo of the traveler to compare against the portrait on the card.
Why a new Hawaii license took longer at the checkpoint.
Hawaii has not put a new driver’s license design in front of TSA officers since 2009, and these cards only began reaching mailboxes this month. During the first weeks of any rollout, it is reasonable to expect that some airport personnel will be encountering the redesigned credential for the first time. Taking a few extra minutes with an unfamiliar government-issued ID doesn’t mean that anything is wrong.
Hawaii isn’t alone in dealing with identification reader issues. Maine and other states have experienced REAL ID barcode reading problems of their own.
What the guidance covers, and what it leaves out.
Anyone traveling within six weeks of obtaining or renewing a REAL ID driver’s license or state identification card must carry another acceptable form of identification, such as a passport or military ID. That guidance covers the waiting period, since a new card can take six to eight weeks to arrive and the temporary paper license issued in the meantime is not accepted at TSA checkpoints.
Jeff did exactly that and carried a passport on every trip while he waited for the new license. What he did not do was carry one two days after it arrived because, by then, the guidance no longer applied to him. Nothing he can find from any Hawaii county says anything about that first trip with the card in hand.
There is also now a financial consequence if a traveler cannot establish identity at the checkpoint. TSA’s ConfirmID service, which took effect February 1, carries a $45 fee for travelers who arrive without acceptable identification and need to use it.
For anyone about to fly with Hawaii’s redesigned driver’s license for the first time, throwing a passport in the bag costs nothing if you already have one. We cannot tell you it would have made any difference at Lihue, and nobody at the checkpoint suggested that it would have.
Whether other Hawaii travelers are seeing TSA delays.
Our experience ended with a delay and nothing more. We made our flight, and the new license worked normally everywhere else we used it on that trip. What we cannot tell from one trip is whether this was an isolated first-week encounter or something other early recipients are also seeing.
What do you think of the new Hawaii driver’s license, and have you had any problems using it?
Lead Photo shows the new Hawaii driver’s license.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
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I miss the graphics of all the islands.
I used my RealID Oregon driver’s license the day after I got it. Notably (and semi-expectedly) it didn’t work. Out came the military ID which did.
TSA agent chalked it up to being too new – it wasn’t in the system yet.
I’ll find out on Sunday if it works now.
It seems ridiculous that TSA employees in Hawaii were not briefed on the new licenses. A photo posted in the office or an email to the screeners could have gone a long way toward reducing confusion about the new ID.