The handbook reviews driving techniques, signage and traffic laws and is used as a study guide for the written driver’s test. The state posts it online for free, but at 116 pages many consider it too long to print.

Marge Howell, a DMV spokeswoman, said the shortage has affected the entire state, though it’s unknown how many of North Carolina’s 136 DMV offices were out of the books.

Howell said officials at the department’s office in Raleigh tried to ease the problem last week by dipping into the collection of books meant for bulk customers, such as AAA, the AARP and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, which receives about 100,000 handbooks a year.

The DMV sent some of those books to offices in all 14 of its districts, Howell said.

It is unclear why the department didn’t tap into the supply months earlier or how long the 3,500-book collection will last, she said.

“(The local offices) have their supplies that are going to have to last them until the end of the year,” Howell said. “It may not be enough. We may be in the same boat.”

Helms, who deals with the DMV regularly, said those supplies “might not last more than a week.” He also said this wasn’t the first time Charlotte-area offices have run out of the study guides.

“It’s been going on for years,” Helms said.

Since 2005, the state has ordered between 250,000 and 500,000 books annually, DMV numbers show. The state’s most recent handbook printing was in June 2010, when the DMV ordered 300,000 copies at a cost of about $125,400.

The department has yet to order any books in 2011 because it wanted to wait to print an updated version, which should be ready to print at the year’s end, Howell said.

The N.C. DMV has lost 7.5 percent of its staff – more than 100

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/sQbzn7S_Jr8/state-short-on-driver-handbooks.html