Thoughts from a Trip to a Georgia DMV
After losing my license, I had to wait for more than three hours to get it replaced, giving me plenty of time to focus on the negative aspects of the state's Department of Driver Services.
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Why should you have to hate going to the DMV? Why should you concede that before you go, there’s a good chance there will be long lines, and when you get to the front, you might not have what the law requires to get your driver’s license?
I lost my license a couple weeks ago (I’m very, very lucky my head, feet and fingers are attached). My first step was to call the Georgia Department of Driver Services to see what I would need to bring in; the two people I talked to told me different things.
This confusion seemed to stem from the July 1 law change in renewing or reinstating Georgia driver’s licenses. In most general cases, drivers must take care of things in person instead of online and must present a form of ID, proof of Social Security number, and two papers proving address.
Just to be safe, I took all possible documentation I could round up.
For convenience, I have used my aunt’s Woodstock address since I moved to the Peach State in late 2010, so I drove to the Cherokee County location in Canton. I went the day after the Fourth of July and got there 30 minutes before it closed at 6 p.m., giving thanks that I just made it.
Unfortunately, they stopped handing out numbers at 2 p.m., meaning the 20 or so people still waiting that evening had been there since the early to mid-afternoon.
On the website, it offered the hours but nothing saying that the center might stop helping new customers before the close time because of busyness. But now, the site says in red writing:
“Customer Service Centers experiencing high customer volumes may discontinue accepting customers prior to the posted time of closing. However, all pre-scheduled reservations will be honored. Please keep in mind that traditionally, Tuesdays and Saturdays are the busiest days of operation. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
To beat the rush when I returned one day earlier this week, I got there 20 minutes before it opened at 8 a.m. To my dismay, the line was already wrapped around the building, and I didn’t get out until shortly before noon.
While there, I saw much frustration, most notably a woman who was turned away because she didn’t bring her marriage license proving her name change. It was nice, though, to see someone standing at the front of the initial line, letting people know if they had everything they needed before they waiting for hours in the seating area.
During my hours-long wait, I began to recall all the government waste I’ve witnessed and read about over the years—sky-high amounts that would more than take care of the pay for some additional part-time help. There was, after all, 10 or so empty service booths to stick a couple more employees in.
Besides the aforementioned document checker, there were only five staff members helping customers. While Georgia drivers can go to any center in the state—something I didn't realize until afterwards—they're assumably going to head to the one closest to them or the one in their home county. So for all of Cherokee County, that's only one center and only five DMV workers.
I began to think of all the time Georgians waste at the DMV and how that hurts the productivity of the state as a whole. It seems like the state government could do something to streamline the process to make it more time efficient.
Such an effort would be beneficial to the public sector, because that’s time that could be used for spending, thus generating sales tax, or used to build up businesses, again bringing in more taxes.
I began to think of how many citizens rally behind stricter identification laws while they simultaneously create a bigger burden for those legally in the country. I’m not saying that such laws are necessarily a bad thing, but something to consider when instituting them is the possibility of jeopardizing our own ways and freedoms.
But enough about my thoughts and experiences—I want to hear from you (feel free to agree or disagree with anything I’ve said).
Maybe you had a good experience at the DMV last time and were in and out in less than an hour? Maybe you could let everyone know where this quick location is? Maybe you believe the Georgia Department of Driver Services is efficient as a whole and doing everything it can to protect the legal drivers and taxpayers?
Whatever your opinions or stories are, share them in the comments below.
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Marilyn
7:02 am on Sunday, July 15, 2012
I understand this is an inconvenience for a lot of people but, how long before you have to do it again? 4 years? maybe more .... Or even if it's less time, you now know exactly what you need and will breeze through it next time and may be able to help someone else that has to go through it.
andrea mack
9:00 am on Sunday, July 15, 2012
I went to the marietta location on Tuesday, July 10th and getting there at 9:40am. I didn't leave with my license until 2pm. After speaking to the girl that helped me, the new rules are just as annoying to the workers as they are to us. She said they make a change everyday. She also said that if you don't have the correct documentation with you that you are allowed to go home and get and then come back without having to wait in line again. So theres on reason it takes so long. After sitting there for an hour and watching them only service 10 people (they were on #44 when I got there, j was number 132) I git smart. I had other things nearby I needed to do. So...I left, was gone for about an hour, and then came back. At that time. It was 11:45 am and they were on 80. I sat a few minutes to see the pace. I left again, came back another hour later and they were in 109. I could see they were moving pretty quickly at that point and I only hsd to wait another 45 minutes or so. When I first got my number, she told me the wait was 2 hours...it ended up being 4. My advice is be prepared to wait and be sure to have the proper documents. The good news is once you get the "SecureID", you can go back to renewing on line so you only have to go thru this misery once.
Sally Emily
9:59 am on Sunday, July 15, 2012
Why don't they open a service center in the Woodstock TowneLake area? They have the building. Seems sensible to me.
David Oliver
11:12 am on Sunday, July 15, 2012
The author was able to get a new license while giving a false address? Doesn't make me feel very secure about SecureID.
bryandcobb@att.net
1:29 pm on Sunday, July 15, 2012
keep in mind...all criminals, no matter how vicious, want to drive. most begin and end in a vehicle. getting your license IN-PERSON puts all criminals who may have been successfully avoiding arrest, within arms reach of law enforcement, and has pretty snoopy license examiners checking for positive ID, driving record, outstanding warrants, etc. I have been called to the waiting line several times to lock up a violent criminal who was there renewing their license.
David Fige
3:06 pm on Sunday, July 15, 2012
This was caused by Illegal Aliens having Drivers Licenses right? Well don't hire them to do any work, or shop/eat where they work! They will leave and we can go online and renew in less then 2 minutes...
patrick
8:51 pm on Sunday, July 15, 2012
This was caused by overzealous lawmakers trying to cull otherwise legitimate voters from the ranks of citizens. DMV offices were already understaffed without this unnecessary over-regulation. Cause and effect consequences not taken into consideration in terms of cost to the taxpayer.
David Fige
6:57 am on Monday, July 16, 2012
Patrick, over zealous law makers? The Pew Institute put the "Net" price to Georgia Tax Payer at 2.5 Billion Dollars a year for Illegal Aliens. So this was Very Necessarily !!! If we didn't have that HUGE drain of funds, and the Use of the Tax Funded Services that were already stretched to the limit.... You have to show an ID to Cash a $5 Check, so the notion of Voter suppression is laughable... AS all citizens have to go through the same system to renew there license's.
David Fige
7:28 am on Monday, July 16, 2012
http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/most-illegal-immigrant-families-collect-welfare/
Here is another articular that uses some of the figures from the Pew Study...
P-Dogg
9:40 am on Monday, July 16, 2012
It's the law of unintended consequences in action; the GA. Legislature heard the hue and cry from certain quarters about out of control immigration and how it was going to somehow destroy us all ... So they dutifully passed a law that would "crack down" hard on those illegals, and we all get to pay the price. It all sounded great on paper, until it turned out to be yet another public policy blunder that pushed us a little further on the downward spiral towards a more authoritarian world ... Maybe next time we will all think twice before pushing for a law that will do more harm than good in the long term. If we are lucky maybe some of our legislators will take action to modify this policy before it ends up becoming the new normal.
David Fige
12:34 pm on Monday, July 16, 2012
If this works, and Illegal's move out of GA. I'll take 1 day out of my life to deal with this. Illegal Aliens cost GA Billions every year.
As we will only need to go through this one time, next renewal back to online renewal if you qualify to.
Brian Davis
3:33 pm on Monday, July 16, 2012
Thanks Chip Rogers and Cherokee Delegation- one good thing Sonny did was get renewal lines down to 30 min or it was free. Now we're back to 6-7-8 hrs. Real conservative and, efficient? NOT
David Fige
3:54 pm on Monday, July 16, 2012
Brian, is it better to support 500,000 illegals @ 2.5 Billion a year ? or for all Legal Georgia taxpayers to take one day out of our life's? Don't get made at a senator/ or House Rep.. Get mad at the cause of this major problem "ILLEGAL ALIENS"
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