I almost had a nervous breakdown — NJ MVC needs to change

Before the pandemic hit, you didn’t need appointments to go to the Motor Vehicle Commission. (Kids, ask your parents!)

You could just walk right in and see those smiling, happy state workers who love their jobs.

Because of the outbreak, everything changed, so now for most things you have to have an appointment, which I dealt with this week.

Circumstances had it that I couldn’t renew my license by mail in time, and I had no options for appointments near the town where I live.

Worried that I was going to end up having an expired driver’s license, I found a 10:20 a.m. appointment all the way in Hunterdon County for the day before the license would expire.

So I thought, “great. An appointment would probably make it go even smoother. Right?”

Wrong.

NJMVC

I arrived at the Flemington MVC 15 minutes before my appointment only to find four other cars in front of me cruising through the jammed parking lot, and none of us finding an open space.

It was that crowded.

I finally realized there was no way I was going to make my appointment by waiting for a spot to open up, and I had to go back down 202 to randomly park in some business’s lot where I truly didn’t belong.

Me being me, I worried the entire morning that I was going to somehow end up finding my car towed.

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A real fun part came after I locked my car. I had to walk back up the highway with traffic whizzing by me at 55 miles an hour.

Most of the way, the grass I was trying to walk on was part of a hill, so I had to walk unevenly like Quasimodo with my left foot hitting the ground before my right.

I finally get there and I am assigned number 116 in line. It was like a horror movie when I looked up on the wall and realized they were only on number 40.

Experiences at the MVC

That’s right, even with their appointment system, I had 75 people in front of me. I’m sorry, but how?!

The wait was agonizing.

The annoyed vibe was shared by everyone in that room. I heard several people grumbling, “What’s even the point of having an appointment then?“

In fact, a worker at a reception desk was asked about it, and she full on admitted that they will assign the exact same appointment time slot to dozens of people. Her words were then, “This is what Trenton does.”

With all of the other people waiting for appointments, I ended up sitting on the floor.

Then several of us were told to clear out by a security guard just because one old man was confused about where the line started. We were herded into a tight space. At this point, I felt like I was in a crowded elevator with nowhere to run.

MVC wait times

The clock ticked on and on. I genuinely thought I was going to have to call my cohost, Jeff Deminski, and tell him I would be late for our afternoon drive show.

It was nearly 2 hours before I was summoned to window 8. Again, to quote most of the people in there, “What’s the point of even having an appointment then?”

Once I was finally called, I would say they were fairly efficient. But to add to the nightmare, they then told me I had to have a new photo taken.

The first photo was horrible, and the woman behind the desk asked if I wanted a retake. I said yes.

When they took the next one, I felt it was no better, and I told her screw it, go ahead and use it.

It was almost like she was confirming that she knew these pictures were bad when she said, “Nobody looks at these anyway.”

Ouch.

I know they’re just doing their jobs. I know they didn’t set up the system. I actually felt bad for the workers there because everybody was so stressed out on the customer side of the counter, and they have to deal with this all the time.

But honestly, can’t Trenton find a better way?

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5's Kylie Moore. Any opinions expressed are Kylie's own. You can follow Kylie on Instagram.

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