The service at the Mississippi Motor Vehicles offices has been deteriorating. For two reasons: First, one of the offices here in Jackson closed and was not replaced, and second, new Federal ID requirements have led to more complicated licenses that are harder to print.
So I waited fo four hours this past week. I couldn’t renew online because I accidentally allowed my old license to expire.
Some thoughts about the experience:
- The employees at the office were not to blame. It is chic to call government employees lazy, but the fact is that once my name was called the service was quick and efficient. The employees were working. There just weren't enough of them.
- I brought a copy of George Eliot’s Middlemarch with me and read it while I waited. I don’t think I would do that again. Middlemarch is a wonderful book, but it is a notoriously complex novel. After three hours, my mind was mush.
- Renewing my license required me to stand for a photo and verify my address. No vision test, no written test, no review of my driving qualifications at all. It is hard to see the point of getting a license in Mississippi except that it is a way to collect money. No concern about safety.
- I am not at all angry about the experience. I knew it would be a pain from the beginning — my expectations were low. I had the day off and was prepared to spend all of it there. Low expectations do wonders for the mood.
- The state gave me the option of paying double the fee and getting an eight year license. This was a fantastic deal and almost made the four hours worth it. I was able to condense eight years of interactions with the DMV into one day and get it over with.
- What kind of a person will I be in eight years when I have to come back? Long stretch of life between now and then.
- Everyone in statewide elective office should have to renew his or her license in person at the DMV once a year. If our political leaders had to sit for four hours each year in the DMV, I am betting the number of clerks would increase and the wait times would fall dramatically. Politicians these days tend to be wealthy and therefore rarely have to use public services. They know nothing about the systems they create.
- Come to think of it, every politician should have to spend one day a year off health insurance for each percent of citizens who are uninsured.