Going nowhere fast at the MVA

This summer, I found a maddeningly inefficient place that doesn't seem to obey the laws of physics, where time slows and even stands still. And there isn't just one spot like this in Maryland, there are 23!

Yes, this summer was my first real experience with Maryland's prestigious Motor Vehicle Administration. Like most other teens who tried to get their licenses or permits this summer, I encountered massive slowdowns and even more massive lines.

"I recognize that they may be short on money and people, but the waits on the weekend, especially to take the driver's test, are just ridiculous," said senior Nick Stone, who is still working on getting his license. "You have to wait three or four hours just to fail a driving test. It's obviously bureaucratically inefficient and understaffed."

I know from personal experience that Stone is right. It took me seven visits to the MVA to get my license. Only three of them were for the actual driving test (yes, I did fail it twice), and the other four were all times I had to go back after passing it. I waited in line for hours for my license and the computers broke; or I waited in line for hours and was told I needed even more types of ID; or I waited in line for hours and the MVA simply closed.

On my final trip to the MVA, when I actually walked out with my license, over 500 people got numbers to wait in line. At the close of business, after 8 hours of work, less than 200 of these people had been processed.

"We had had our wait times down to about 35 minutes," said MVA spokesperson Cheron Wicker. But wait times spiraled out of control this summer because of what she calls "the perfect storm of problems."

According to Wicker, the problems started with implementation of the new, more secure licensing system, which increased transaction time. Summertime is the busiest time too, especially for teens getting new licenses. Add to that a two year long hiring freeze implemented because of budget problems and an increasing Maryland population, and you do indeed have a perfect storm.

Now the MVA's wait times are "typically three to four hours," according to Wicker. However, she maintains that most of the increased wait time is not the MVA's fault. "We do 54,000 transactions a day. The MVA is very competent, and to have a document as secure as out license takes quality and time."

The MVA is also trying to hire as many as 50 new employees and get people to handle more of their transactions online, where they can renew vehicle registrations and request titles and driving records.

However, according to spokesman Jack Callahan, in an article written by the Washington Post, it will be at least 90 days before any improvement is seen in the average wait times.

In a survey of 25 Blair students who have recently been to the MVA to get their permits and driver's licenses, eighteen said the MVA had handled them inefficiently. The average wait time for Blair students was more than 3 hours and 20 minutes.

Cheron Wicker says the MVA is trying their hardest to make customers' experiences less painful, but "people really need to give us a break."

On Saturday, September 6, I ventured back out to the Greenbelt MVA to see for myself if the situation had improved. Not surprisingly, things looked just as bad. The people waiting there looked like they could have been waiting there since my last visit two weeks ago.

What looked to be at least 500 people filled every square inch, packed in like cattle and waiting it out as patiently as they could. Exactly eleven MVA employees were on duty serving all these people; less than a quarter of the stations that could have been open were. And this was on a Saturday morning, one of the MVA's busiest times.

"They just don't have enough people. When they opened the door, the line was out into the parking lot," said Michael Macintyre, a local resident trying to get a motorcycle permit. "I've been here since 7:00 this morning, and I still don't have it [at 11:30]."

"It's just a mess, and they don't know how to take care of anyone," said junior Will Sprecher, who had been waiting to get his license for more than two hours. "We got a while to go," he sighed, looking up at the board and seeing more than 100 people had numbers before his in line. At fifteen minutes a transaction (a posted sign gives that as the average time), Sprecher apparently still had more than 25 hours of waiting time.

Signs posted all around the facility repeat, "MVA would like to apologize for the delays you might experience…MVA appreciates your patience."

But posted signs were no help to Toheeb, a junior from Sherwood. "I've been waiting in this line for half an hour for my vision test," he said, but as he spoke the person behind him tapped his shoulder and told him he was in the wrong line. Frustrated, he said, "I think they don't have enough signs telling you where to go."