With all the news about California’s Department of Motor Vehicles over the last few weeks, making a trip to the DMV over the weekend to renew my driver’s license was not something I was looking forward to doing.
Over the last two months, the DMV has gone through two different directors. A new director is now in place, but California’s new Governor Gavin Newsom recently launched a strike team to look into the DMV’s operations. And wait times reportedly have been shorter.
But having tried to make an appointment last week only to find there were no appointments available until after my driver’s license expires in a couple of months, I figured I’d try a walk in on Saturday.
The wait time on line said less than 25 minutes, but then pulling into the huge parking lot at the DMV office in Clairemont and seeing the lot almost filled didn’t help raise my low expectations.
But then, in just a few minutes, I got through the first line that sends you to a different line. And then I got through the second line to the bay of computers to fill out forms in a couple of minutes, and then got back into the line to get to the next line where you get your “number”, that when called, sends you to the final stop. And the wait for my number was less than 30 minutes.
I was out the door from start to finish in a just over one hour. Every one of the employees was friendly and did their jobs quickly.
Looks like the folks at the DMV have made some positive changes. And that’s good news.
Read more about latest developments at California Dept of Motor Vehicles.
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