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DMV Waits Longer Than Ever Despite Assurances

DENVER (CBS4) - Waiting time at Colorado's 36 Division of Motor Vehicle Offices are still stretching into the 2 to 3 hour range despite repeated indications from state officials that they would be down to 15 minutes, and despite the fact 15 of the offices have a ballyhooed "Wait Less" computerized check-in system aimed at speeding up the process.

"These are not reasonable, I'm not going to say these are good wait times," said Barbara Brohl, Executive Director of the Department of Revenue when CBS4 showed her how long the wait times still are at a variety of DMV offices.

In March 2012, the state implemented the "Wait Less" program which allowed people to schedule DMV appointments on the Internet and use computerized kiosks at DMV offices to speed wait times.

"This is a huge improvement from the old way of doing business, where people never know how long it will take until they get to a DMV office," said Gov. John Hickenlooper at the time. "You talk to us in 2 or 3 years from now people are going to be just dying to renew their drivers licenses," Hickenlooper told one reporter.

Not so much.

Gov. John Hickenlooper
Gov. John Hickenlooper signing a bill increasing DMV fees to pay for improvements to the system(credit: CBS)

In June of 2014, the governor signed a bill increasing DMV fees to pay for improvements to the system.

"Our vision of an average wait time of 15 minutes," said Hickenlooper.

Judging from what CBS4 found in the last several months, that's still a long way off. On Nov. 17, 2014 at 2:47 p.m., the wait time at the DMV's Athmar office was nearly 2 hours. At the same office on Jan. 12, the wait was 2 hours and 16 minutes at 1:47 p.m. On the same November day, the wait at the Aurora DMV office was 1 hour 44 minutes just before 4 p.m.

When CBS4 spot checked various DMV offices -- many with the Wait Less system -- the waits regularly hovered around 2 hours.

"I will tell you anything more than 2 hours makes me roll my eyes and we need to do better," said Brohl. "Two hours wait time is not acceptable."

Barbara Brohl, Executive Director of the Department of Revenue
Barbara Brohl, Executive Director of the Department of Revenue, talks with CBS4's Brian Maass (credit: CBS)

Brohl insisted the state was still aiming for a 15 minute wait time for the majority of people, but she conceded that goal may not be achieved for a long time.

Brohl explained the state is implementing short, medium and long-term solutions to alleviate the wait times. In the short term, she said DMV offices are now accepting credit cards, giving more information to people as soon as they walk in, simplifying log in procedures and providing advisors in some larger DMV offices. She said those fixes have "somewhat" helped the problem.

DMV Division of Motor Vehicles Department generic
(credit: CBS)

In the medium term, she said DMV has more money this year to hire more workers, do more online processing, and get more workers into DMV offices during busy lunch hours. She said lunch time is a peak time and is when waits are amplified.

"Once we get behind at lunch time it's very difficult to catch up," said Brohl.

She said the long-term solution is replacement of aging computer and data systems that are decades old.

"It's a fragile system. It goes down and we create wait times."

Brohl says antiquated computer systems will be replaced within about 3 years. She says wait times should improve incrementally in the next 3 years.

Brohl said "everything we're doing is aimed at shaving wait time for our customers."

RELATED STORIES: More DMV Stories

She said in DMV offices with the Wait Less system, the average wait time is 32 minutes. For all DMV offices, she said the average wait time is 42 minutes. But on social media websites reviewed by CBS4, some people recounted waiting 4, 5 and even 6 hours at DMV offices. Other drivers recounted waits of just a few minutes and nice, friendly DMV employees.

To avoid the long waits, the DMV offers a variety of tips and suggestions:

- Avoid Fridays if possible.Fridays tend to be the busiest day of the week
- Avoid lunch times which tend to be the busiest time of the day
- Try to arrive when the DMV office opens or toward the end of the day
- If you can, renew your paperwork on line or if you don't have a computer, renew by mail
- Have all your documents prepared and in order when you arrive at the DMV office

CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass has been with the station more than 30 years uncovering waste, fraud and corruption. Follow him on Twitter @Briancbs4.

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