Why is the DMV considered the worst form of bureaucracy?

In My Humble Opinion
21

^This, except I live in GA. Getting an initial license used to be an all day affair:
Wait in line, take the written test.
If you pass, wait in line, get assigned an examiner for the road test.
Wait in line for your turn with examiner.
Take the road test, get result.
If you passed, wait in line for photo.

Each line averaged an hour wait. Now one makes an appointment and is in and out within a couple of hours max. Renewals are done on-line and are good for a 5 or 8 year period. Much, much easier.

22

“Dad, I got a job at the DMV!”

“I HAVE NO SON!”

23

The NV DMV has gotten better, but… last time I went to get my license renewed it took 5 hours. I couldn’t renew online had to go in due to a change in the licensing (every 8 years instead of 4). On average, if I have to go to the DMV it is a minimum of 4 hours.

In Albuquerque there was an actual riot at the DMV back about 1994 or so if I recall correctly. The DMV was insane, it was always a day long ordeal and there would always be like 4 windows of the 30 open but you’d see people wandering around back apparently not doing shit. If I remember correctly, Gary Johnson managed to get a bunch of satellite offices opened when he was in office and things got a lot better.

Slee

24

It depends on WHICH state you live in. In some states like Arizona (and in the past California), they could care less how long people have to wait in lines (DMV, banks, etc.) VERY long lines there.

But I can go into a DMV in Oregon and not wait more then 5 minutes, and the clerks smile at me and are courteous - joke around. Quite a pleasant experience.

25

I think that’s it. I’m sure there are worse, but everyone has to deal with the DMV.

26

*Quarter to three
At the DMV
That’s when I saw her
She didn’t see me
Behind Window B
Explaining patiently
How she needs to see
Six forms of ID

…Quarter to four
The line’s still out the door*

“Yolanda Hayes” - Fountains of Wayne

27

I’d bet not, since the incentives don’t change just because you contract out to a private company. That’s what us conservatives got wrong about government, is thinking it’s inherently bad because government. But it’s not government itself, it’s the incentives created by the model, which do not change when you substitute a private company.

Where DMVs have improved, it goes back to incentives again, but in a different way. Since the DMV is where the most citizens interact with government, politicians who want to “Prove” that government can work well concentrate on fixing the DMV. But if you really wanted to fix DMVs and government services in general the best way to do that is simply to adopt some private sector practices:

  1. Employees are scheduled when needed based on demand, not guaranteed a stable schedule because government workers are somehow entitled to a stable schedule.

  2. Employees receive promotions and raises based on excellent performance, not seniority or resume qualifications. Only in the government do people “earn” more money by getting a better degree. In the private sector your boss will say, “Congratulations on your Masters, how are the sales figures?”

  3. Employees get disciplined for poor performance. Some politicians have suggested “Uberizing” government. That’s a great idea at least in terms of the feedback system. The person you deal with, you should be able to rate, and raises, promotions, and discipline should be based on employees’ ratings relative to each other.

28

I’m in SoCal as well, and I totally agree with this. In the past several years I’ve had to deal with the DMV more than any sane person should have to, on behalf of my elderly father in law and my disabled husband as well as myself. Everyone I/we encountered, whether on the phone or in person, was polite and helpful. The best part about dealing with them on the phone was the callback feature - instead of waiting 40 minutes or so on hold, they call you back when it’s your turn.

29

A perfect example of why the DMV pisses people off is what happened to me the last time I was there. There was a huge line down the block of 75-100 people before the place opened. So I got at the back of the line. DMV opens at 8, people continue to wait and line up until about 8:45, when someone finally wanders out of the office and starts telling people that renewals can come up to the front- the big line is only for first-time driver’s test people.

So basically we renewal people stood in line for nearly an hour until someone deigned to come tell us that we could just skip up to the front into the other line (which was totally empty).

In private business, that kind of treatment would have people finding a competitor to do business with, but since it’s the DMV and a governmental agency, nobody cares one bit.

30

If you just contracted one company to do it there would only be small improvement. If there were 50 DMV companies competing for your business you’d see big improvements.

31

I disagree. There isn’t room in one locality for dozens of alternative DMV services – the market would be split ridiculously small. So private DMV services may carve up a map more or less how cable/ISP companies have: there’s a couple of choices in each region, but not many.

Everyone who loves their cable/ISP compnay, raise their hand! Yeah, not going to get a whole lot of enthusiasm there.

32

Comcast is worse than the DMV. Much worse.

33

If you had a guy with a laptop drive around to people to do their Dmv stuff it would work pretty well. Heck just have your insurance agent take care of it.

34

My first encounter with the BMV (it’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Indiana), aside from getting my license, which I don’t remember taking all that long, was when I registered my first car. It took about three hours, and there weren’t enough chairs, so I had to stand for the first hour. Another time, I had to register a car, and it literally took all day, because it so happened that between the time I bought it, and the time I went to register it, a new rule went into effect, that I needed an odometer statement from the dealer (not needed for vehicles bought in private transactions). In addition to the fact that this was a vintage car with a different than original engine, I protested that I should be grandfathered because of the purchase date. No luck. Had to go back to the place where I bought it. Then, there turned out to be a discrepancy between the odometer statement and the title, probably because someone had either written the title from memory, or it had a typo (this was 1992). More protesting regarding the fact that I didn’t really care if the odometer had been turned back, and anyway, it didn’t have THE ORIGINAL FREAKING ENGINE. No avail.

I went home, got a blue pencil, and altered the odometer statement. Then I went to a different branch of the BMV, where, miraculously, I waited only 20 minutes, and got the thing registered.

The dealer should have given me an odometer statement when he sold me the car, because he knew that rule would be going into effect in a week, and I had four weeks to register the car, but it was the BMV worker who gave me the bad news.

Also, there’s a bit of an observer bias. When the places are crowded, lots of people are there to witness and be inconvenienced. When they are not crowded, there aren’t many people there to see them not being crowded. I think this is really a huge part of the situation.

But the last was probably that the market for the services was unpredictable. It was hard to tell when lots of people would suddenly buy cars, or suddenly need road tests, so it was hard to schedule extra people when they needed them.

Now, things have changed, though. I recently went in to get the secure license, and it took about 12 minutes. Registering is online now, so you don’t have to go in once a year, like you used to, and that has cut down hugely on the crowding. They have more, and more comfortable chairs, and you sit instead of stand at the counters. They also have functioning AC.

The problem has actually never been slow workers, but one BMV office handling every vehicle-related thing, causing sort of bottle-necks of customers at various times. They were poorly organized, and it wasn’t really anyone’s job to keep car salespeople informed about what people needed when they got to the BMV, so people got there with th wrong things, and ended up having waited for nothing. It was not the workers fault, but they were the bearers of the news.

Anyway, just a lot of problems all around, many of which have been fixed.

35

In my state, you have a choice between the government office, or a private company that provides most of the basic services. The private company costs more, but they get stuff done much, much faster.

36

I don’t know if this is true in all states, but if you’re an AAA member in CA, you can do all your DMV business there. In and out in a jiffy.

37

The last time I went to the DMV, my complaint is that they were too efficient. I hadn’t even made it to the pen station to fill out the form and they were calling my ticket number.

38

Because if you compare shitty modern bureaucracies to Hitler’s Final Solution, you’ll be accused of Godwinizing. So, DMV it is.

39

My issue with the DMV is they only have two penalties they can assess… fine the bejesus out of you or take away your driving privileges. Any time they say I owe them money, I send them a check, and I usually have no idea what it’s for, I just pay it.

40

I keep renewing my license online, wondering how many times they’re going to allow me to do so using the same on-file photo— in which I’m noticeably younger, around 30 pounds heavier, with different glasses and wearing a beard, which I haven’t done in over ten years. I’d prefer to have an updated photo taken, but not enough to spend a day at the DMV.