Need to renew your driver's license? Do it online. Want to transfer the title on your vehicle? Make an appointment.

And if you've already scheduled your DMV appointment for Aug. 16 — the only Saturday that 53 offices statewide were supposed to be open this month — you'd better reschedule. Those offices will now be closed that day.

With the state budget impasse resulting in staff reductions and other cutbacks, the DMV says these tips could save you valuable time.

The extensive cuts, ordered last week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger because the Legislature has yet to pass a budget, have eliminated thousands of part-time state jobs, including approximately 1,000 positions at 169 DMV offices statewide.

The DMV also suspended the scheduled Aug. 16 service at selected offices, "due to the delayed state budget and staffing constraints," according to a news release.

In Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties, the following offices will be closed Aug. 16: the Coliseum office in Oakland, Pittsburg, Pleasanton, Vallejo and Walnut Creek.

On Thursday, wait times for DMV customers without an appointment varied from five minutes in Walnut Creek, to 20 minutes in Pittsburg, to more than an hour in El Cerrito, according to data on the DMV's Web site.

Lafayette resident Fetcher Stevens stopped by the Walnut Creek office to renew his license Thursday afternoon. He did not have an appointment. "Took me less than 10

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minutes," he said. "I was in and out with no problems, but this office is usually always pretty good."

More people are using the department's Web site. In the first six months of 2008, more than 2.7 million people registered their vehicles online and 358,243 people renewed their licenses, up from last year by 19 percent and 97 percent respectively.