California DMV running out of money

[Deslah]

You really think that is not happening now.

I think things aren't as bad as they could be. Switching to a contracted firm doesn't usually lower costs. It shifts control and reduces oversight. In time, it actually raises costs by adding external overhead (CEO and staff paychecks). Customer-facing staff have less incentive to "do the right thing" and more incentive to put their company first. Then, come contract renewal time, the corruption runs at its highest as the contracted CEO and staff attempt to 'persuade' government officials to maintain the contract with them, all while new bidders try to court them as well. If the cycle goes on long enough, the contracted company eventually grows powerful enough to never lose the contract.

Elon Musk and SpaceX experienced this firsthand when the US Air Force awarded ULA (a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing) a sole-source $11 billion contract. Elon Musk had to publicly shame the Secretary of the Air Force--along with SpaceX suing the Air Force directly--just to get the Air Force to allow them to compete for future contracts.

Left unchecked, a contracted firm will often go so far as to sub-contract out to other firms who've squeezed their staff to an even greater extent. In doing so, they'll let go of their own lowest staff and then offer them take-it-or-leave-it jobs under the newer, lower-paying structure.

On the other hand, with all civil servants and a powerful, dynamic ethics program in place, yes, things are better for the public as well as for the workers.

If I've gotten something wrong here, feel free to enlighten me.

 

[jboy210]

Just authorize AAA to do more DMV functions.

I gladly pay the yearly AAA fee to be able to walk in without an appointment on a random morning and do a registration transfer in 10 minutes. Did that 2 times in the last 4 months. Only 2 or 3 people ahead of me in line and 2-3 clerks processing forms.

Give AAA driver license renewals and I will never again darken the door of a DMV office.

 

[Merrill]

Just authorize AAA to do more DMV functions.

I gladly pay the yearly AAA fee to be able to walk in without an appointment on a random morning and do a registration transfer in 10 minutes. Did that 2 times in the last 4 months. Only 2 or 3 people ahead of me in line and 2-3 clerks processing forms.

Give AAA driver license renewals and I will never again darken the door of a DMV office.

I agree.

 

[jkoya]

I agree.

I agree as well. I use our local AAA office (about 1.5 miles from home) for as many DMV transactions as possible.

 

[GoBlue88]

Couple of observations/recommendations, having recently made 2 DMV visits: 1 for my daughter to take the written test for her driver's permit, and 1 for my driver's license renewal as it is expiring and I was switching to a Real ID so I couldn't do it online:

1) I'm not sure their computer systems are that antiquated. I filled out both my daughter's application as well as mine online ahead of time, with a very easy to use form. Both times when we got to the counter, the staffer simply pulled the applications up on her computer and started the process very quickly. No need to print them out and bring them with me - just needed the confirmation code that popped up at the end of the online application process. Also, my daughter took her written exam on a DMV computer, which processed the score instantly and uploaded it to their database where a staffer could access it and print out her permit. Also they have a smartphone app which brings me to...

2) If you are going to do a walk-in visit, use the App! There is a free CA DMV app available for iPhone at least - don't know about Android. Download it. Open it up. Tap on the office finder and find your local DMV or whichever one you want to visit. Part of the information on there is current walk-in wait times. Based on my experience for both of these visits to the DMV in San Marcos, the wait time estimate is highly accurate. We did both visits on Saturdays, without an appointment. I checked the wait times first thing in the morning and they were over an hour. Checked around 10:00 am and they were down to 20 minutes! Hoofed it over there and for both visits we were in and out in under 30 minutes total.

 

[Ulmo]

It is one of the most inefficient departments in the state, no one working there has any work ethic. Make it private for profit company.

I could even see it being done transitionally in a way that benefits us. Here's a rough procedure for transformation:

1. Allow private companies to provide all DMV services. No company would be required to provide any more than one service each, but could offer as many services as they want. State computers would keep the information for free, never charging money for that information keeping, but the private companies would tend the information that each one touches when they get a visitor, and they would shoulder all costs and pass those on to customers. Maybe each person would elect a different private company to be their "handler" since sometimes things need interactions over time. They could switch "handlers" whenever they want, and the handling would be transferred to the other company. Default provider would be DMV at first. There would be a maximum fee set by state law for the "transfer" fee from one handler to another handler (such as around $30), but no other fees would be dictated by the state. If all providers collude to charge $10,000 for a driver exam, then since there are no limits to the number of companies offering DMV services, another one could come up that charges $9,000, and another that charges $200, and people would seek out the $200 one. When the $200 one gets flooded with customers, another one for $500 would pop up that provides a lot of examiners. Simple demand and supply.
2. Keep DMV open during this phase of allowing private companies to provide DMV services.
3. Work to make sure there are at least a dozen private companies offering DMV services.
4. Watch the number of people start to use the private services increase.
5. DMV would be around to handle more complicated situations during this time.
6. Start to try finding companies of the existing DMV services companies that want to provide everything, and commit to term agreements so that at least 10 companies at a time each do all DMV services. There would never be a limit to the number of companies that provide DMV services, nor to those who do all services.
7. Make sure the term-commitment ten companies are working well.
8. Start charging extra fees to people who don't use the private companies.
9. Start closing DMV branches, selling their equipment to whomever wants it (even the private companies).
10. Finish closing all DMV branches.

That's an easy transition.

By the way, a lot of the current government system is very self-respect oriented: if you respect yourself, you will seek out and eventually find those DMV offices that are not crammed, and visit a few times until there is not much of a line. Where I go the line is considered long when there are more than 10 people in it, and a long wait is considered more than 15 minutes. Long lines happen, though, so when I see that, I come back another day. Just an hour drive away from me is an office that has hundred person lines with 6 hour waits to see someone that closes when it's dark outside. I don't go there.

 

[Ulmo]

I think things aren't as bad as they could be. Switching to a contracted firm doesn't usually lower costs. It shifts control and reduces oversight. In time, it actually raises costs by adding external overhead (CEO and staff paychecks). Customer-facing staff have less incentive to "do the right thing" and more incentive to put their company first. Then, come contract renewal time, the corruption runs at its highest as the contracted CEO and staff attempt to 'persuade' government officials to maintain the contract with them, all while new bidders try to court them as well. If the cycle goes on long enough, the contracted company eventually grows powerful enough to never lose the contract.

Elon Musk and SpaceX experienced this firsthand when the US Air Force awarded ULA (a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing) a sole-source $11 billion contract. Elon Musk had to publicly shame the Secretary of the Air Force--along with SpaceX suing the Air Force directly--just to get the Air Force to allow them to compete for future contracts.

Left unchecked, a contracted firm will often go so far as to sub-contract out to other firms who've squeezed their staff to an even greater extent. In doing so, they'll let go of their own lowest staff and then offer them take-it-or-leave-it jobs under the newer, lower-paying structure.

On the other hand, with all civil servants and a powerful, dynamic ethics program in place, yes, things are better for the public as well as for the workers.

If I've gotten something wrong here, feel free to enlighten me.

I bolded, italicized, and underlined your mistake. It was so early in your message that it made the rest moot.

 

[Deslah]

I bolded, italicized, and underlined your mistake. It was so early in your message that it made the rest moot.

You're a snide one, I'll grant you that. Do you handle government contracts already? Your matrix has the look of the most ineffective contracting schemes possible.

 

[Kilotango74]

This exact thing was tried in New Jersey. The result was an unmitigated disaster of long lines, poor service, and rampant corruption and theft from public coffers. You have to think about who is going to win bid contracts for something like this, who they'd have to know, and how many kickbacks would be involved.

Ah.... New Jersey..... Dughhhh

 

[jeffro01]

So long as the employees are unionized this isn't going to get any better... Unions and government should never have allowed to coexist in the first place...

Jeff

 

[Sherlo]

This exact thing was tried in New Jersey. The result was an unmitigated disaster of long lines, poor service, and rampant corruption and theft from public coffers. You have to think about who is going to win bid contracts for something like this, who they'd have to know, and how many kickbacks would be involved.

Perhaps New Jersey is an outlier for privatizing. Arizona and Indiana appear to be working well under privatization. For example, “average wait times at MVD (Indiana’s DMV equivalent) to under 10 minutes and earned a 96 percent customer satisfaction rating.” Perhaps someone from AZ or IN can confirm?

California’s DMV Problems Require Change, Major Overhaul, not More Money

 

[strider]

Oklahoma has a privatized system and it works great. There's not a single vendor. There are scores of Mom and Pop "tag agencies" and they keep people moving as they get paid on transactions. Everyone working there really wants to get you in and out as fast as possible. I don't know how the fee structures work but it's radically better than the DMV system. I was shocked at how terrible the Cali DMV was when I moved there from OK. Every time I read one of these stories I'm glad I left.

 

[GoBlue88]

Oklahoma has a privatized system and it works great. There's not a single vendor. There are scores of Mom and Pop "tag agencies" and they keep people moving as they get paid on transactions. Everyone working there really wants to get you in and out as fast as possible. I don't know how the fee structures work but it's radically better than the DMV system. I was shocked at how terrible the Cali DMV was when I moved there from OK. Every time I read one of these stories I'm glad I left.

I've had to visit the DMV exactly twice in the last 16 years, both of them this year. 95% of what you need to do at the DMV can be done online. Let's not act like this is some kind of major quality-of-life hit.

And again CA people: use the app to assess wait times. It works.