Why do people in the USA hate the DMV so much?
One of my job function is to support some aspects of a DMV, so I'll give you some perspectives and thoughts:1. DMV's have an atrocious problem with uneven demand. EVERYBODY shows up at the DMV in about 3 days at the end of the month, and the first two or three days of it. Go to a DMV in the middle of the month, and you will likely find far shorter lines. But unlike many private companies, DMV's can't easily scale staffing up and down. Tough background checks and often old and crappy systems make for long training and onboarding cycles, making temps untenable, and many other functions of government are also month end heavy, making it hard to rotate employees in.2. NOBODY EVER WANTS TO GO TO THE DMV. Seriously. You will never have a customer who's happy to be there. It's a grating job that wears people down and makes them hate life. But you have to be there, and so do DMV employees.. Nobody is going to be chipper after all that. 3. It's a shitty job, usually with modest pay, yet surprisingly complex procedures, software, controls, and policy that basically sucks for employees and customers. When policy is written or passed by the legislature, nobody cares what impact it will have on the front line at the DMV. Add 20 minutes to the wait? Make employees enter data in five separate systems? Meh, not their problem. Nobody votes an elected official out of office because the DMV sucks. (If they did, it would not suck anymore). Further, The best way to be fired at the DMV is to break policy. Which is a good way to make damn sure that nobody goes above and beyond to help a customer a little extra. Being slow won't get you fired, but breaking policy will.4. Telephone and internet services are afterthoughts constrained by hidebound legal requirements that nobody has bothered to update since 1946, and which make it damn near impossible to deliver quality service to people. (Some states are much better than others here).5. DMV's are often run by people whose primary job isn't to run the DMV. County assessors, some random state agency, whatever... They have bigger fish to fry and more pressing concerns. The DMV is simply neglected.At the end of the day, the DMV isn't much worse than customer service at any pseudo-monopoly. And with no motivation to improve, it won't.
Why is there always, without a doubt, a long wait at the DMV?
That’s generally the way government offices are run - when you have a monopoly on things there’s no incentive to improve the service - and that’s one of the main reasons Conservatives want less government involvement in things. Competition in a free enterprise system is the key to constant improvement of the business; because if YOU don’t deliver, there will be someone waiting around the corner who will. For example, Compare the Postal Service before and after UPS, Fed Ex and other delivery services came about. Nowadays you can track your package from start to finish and other things you couldn’t do when there was only one service
Why is DMV so slow?
Some thoughts:The sheer number of people who use the service - In most states, the majority of adults are licensed to drive and between new licenses, renewals, replacement licenses and testing nearly every adult in any given state goes through their office at least once every few years. In some cases people go to the offices EVERY YEAR.People come in who don’t have to - Many things can be done online or over the phone. However many older don’t feel comfortable doing and neither do many people who have limited English skills. If they had someone help them, they could often avoid a trip into an office. Additionally, the online and phone services require credit or debit cards and a sizable number of people don’t have those. Again, if they could have someone with a credit or debit card assist them, they wouldn’t have to go in,People don’t bring in the correct information - They don’t call in advance to see what they’ll need. Or, even better, they’ll wait in line for an hour or longer in front of a sign which lists what they’ll need to complete their transaction…and they still won’t get it.Most offices are understaffed or just staffed with “just enough” clerks - Somebody taking a vacation or calling in sick can virtually cripple a DMV/BMV office. Since as with most state agencies, they run “lean”, they often lack the personnel to quickly and efficiently handle large crowds. The lines backing up are the result of this.It’s a crappy job - Despite people’s fantasies about people lining up for state work, most of the jobs are low-paying, high stress and have no promotion prospects. The people who work at the DMV/BMV offices soon realize that no matter how hard they work, or how professional they attempt to be, not only will likely never receive a promotion, almost none of their customers will appreciate it. Hardly a motivator to do better work, faster when you get paid the same and people still treat you like crap whatever you do for them.
Why is the DMV always so crowded and the service slow as molasses?
Every time I go, I always have to wait at least two hours in line just to get to the front desk so I can get my things done. It doesn't seem to matter what time I go...it's always packed to the gills. I've lived in three different states and every DMV I've ever been to is always crowded and moves extremely slow. I don't live in a big city either...I've always lived in small towns all my life so I'm surprised the DMVs are so crowded there. Most of the time it's crowded during the morning and the afternoon. I figured it wouldn't be in the morning, since I thought most people worked.
When is the best time to go to the DMV?
I find I have to go about 45 minutes before they open to get in line. They open at 8AM where I live. I get there about 7:20 and generally I am out of there by 9AM. If you go right when they open, it is packed and lined up for hours.
I signed wrong part of title,put white out,DMV wont accept,seller lives in texas.what can i do?
i bought a car in Texas,i live in Tennessee and i signed the wrong part of the title when i bought and i didn't see the error until i got home in Tennessee so i put white out on it.now the dmv won't take the title.what can i do so that i don't have to drive all the way to Texas again.
Why are DMV workers so unpleasant?
Question: Why are DMV workers so unpleasant?They aren’t.However, as I answered a similar question a while back:Most of the people who come to the DMV/BMV are not prepared - Despite having notification signs and a help desk at the entrances, many of the people who come to the DMV/BMV do not have the correct documents with them. Instead of simply going to retrieve what is needed, they grow angry at the office staff. Few people meet anger with pleasantness.Customers are impatient - They are angry, upset and annoyed that they have to wait in line and they blame and take it out on the office’s workers when only a small portion of their wait is the employee’s fault.Much of what can be done over the phone, by mail or online isn’t done there - With a few exceptions (new registrations, license renewals, etc.) much of the business with the dmV doesn’t require a trip to the office. People choose to go anyway and they then are irritated when what could have been a ten minute phone call or 15–20 minutes online takes them an hour or longer in person.There aren’t enough DMV/BMV offices - Most states have pared down the number of offices which serve the public and increased waiting times and long lines are the result.The DMV/BMV isn’t the civil service job for “movers and shakers” - There’s very limited room for advancement at the DMV/BMV and many of the employees know this. Since civil service jobs have be difficult to obtain and in many states among the best employment that can be found, a number of less than stellar people find themselves strapped in a high stress role that doesn’t have a promising future for them. When they are confronted with the above four items, some people react poorly and act unprofessionally.So questioner…the majority the issues with the DMV/BMV is the customers and the state, with only a minor portion of it being the employees. And, even then, it’s only a few of the employees and certainly not the majority.
Why is the California DMV particularly slow?
Several people have pointed to high population, state size, and greatest number of cars in a single state, as the primary reason the California DMV is slow. These are facts, but should not contribute to the long wait times and inefficiency of the DMV system because there are a great many cars in CA. With approximately 27 million cars and one of the highest registration fees of any state, there should be ample budget for supporting customers that need to interact with the DMV.This does not appear to be the case. Most people understand long wait times, even with an appointment. Employees at the DMV are not motivated by customer satisfaction and therefore have no need to accommodate customers.Consider also, that every CA vehicle owner mus pay registration fees, though most will rarely interact with the DMV either because of online automation or fear of the DMV experience. This should reduce the demand on DMV staff and therefore increase the supply of DMV staff time.This is not the case. I recently contacted the DMV by phone, at a specific number, regarding replacement of missing Carpool stickers, for which I had to pay a fee. This phone call was made after the DMV kicked back my first mailed application because the invoice from the autobody shop that removed the stickers during repairs was “insufficient”. After submitting my application with additional documents, it was kicked back to me a second time because “there is currently a pending transaction associated with this VIN. Please wait until that transaction clears then resubmit.” After waiting three months, I called the given number on the returned DMV forms, on a Wednesday, to be told the average wait time was 84 minutes.I can think of no business that would survive with an 84 minute average wait time.Keep in mind, I paid an extra fee for my original decals and another fee for the replacement yet neither of those fees could grant me a reasonable customer experience.