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I am sitting in the DMV waiting to be called. The DMV has one of those systems in which you are assigned a coordinate that, when announced, calls you to a service rep.

What is the purpose of this kind of queue system? What are the advantages to simply assigning customers a number? The only reason I can think of is that, once the letters are assigned out of order it becomes hard to Hague how long a customer will wait, so it makes it easier to make people wait a long time.

Why are these systems used, how do they work, and how do they assign numbers?

The last time I was at the DMV, they had numbers...

Sounds like someone thought coming up with new ideas is necessary to justify their job, regardless of how pointless the ideas are

VT DMV has 5 classes of numbers and each moves at its own speed. Given the low numbers I see in classes D & E, my guess is that those are for really sticky things like license reinstatement or DWI issues. The A queue is for renewing licenses/getting pictures taken and moves pretty quickly.

The local BMV office has the main counter where you take numbers, and an express line with one person.

The express line is for registration renewals and dealers to drop off bulk registration documents.

And, if the express line is empty, the person working the express counter will take main counter numbers, too.

The DMV's objective is to make you feel as uncomfortable and generic as possible. Often times, they will refer to me as my number instead of my name. They even tattooed a barcode on my wrist. I'm pretty sure the DMV is actually kept around to remind us of why we fought WW2.

Godwin... you genius.

PA DMV allows for online reservations. I go online and take a number. I drive to the DMV. I take a special number that was waiting for me, and watch an entire room full of jelly mad bros watch as I get my license renewed and walk out in under 5 minutes.

shaq_mobile wrote:

The DMV's objective is to make you feel as uncomfortable and generic as possible. Often times, they will refer to me as my number instead of my name. They even tattooed a barcode on my wrist. I'm pretty sure the DMV is actually kept around to remind us of why we fought WW2.

Godwin... you genius.

"I am number 2"
"Who is number 1?!"
"You are number 6"
"I'M NOT A NUMBER! I'M A FREE MAN!!"
"BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"
.
.
.
I'm left alone.. my mind is blank..

steelcity_ballin wrote:

PA DMV allows for online reservations. I go online and take a number. I drive to the DMV. I take a special number that was waiting for me, and watch an entire room full of jelly mad bros watch as I get my license renewed and walk out in under 5 minutes.

Nice but I don't even go into the general service DMV area when I renew my license. I renew online and get a 'photo card' in the mail shortly thereafter. I bring that to the DMV and just go straight to the photo area, get my new photo taken. I'm not sure if there is a way to reserve a spot for the photo 'lines' - and I say it that way because I've never had more than one person in front of me waiting for a photo. I'll keep the online reservation in mind for the future though.

Huh...my local Motor Vehicle Records just uses the straight-up "take a number" system. There's a special line for dealers. IIRC license renewals have to go through a separate office, or at least they do in my county of residence.

NeelyCam wrote:

"I am number 2"
"Who is number 1?!"
"You are number 6"
"I'M NOT A NUMBER! I'M A FREE MAN!!"
"BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"
.
.
.
I'm left alone.. my mind is blank..

I needed time to think
To get the memories from my mind

\m/

ludi wrote:

Huh...my local Motor Vehicle Records just uses the straight-up "take a number" system. There's a special line for dealers. IIRC license renewals have to go through a separate office, or at least they do in my county of residence.

One joy of VT DMV is that once your picture is stored on their servers, license renewal is completely mail-based. Back in the college days I used to make serious bank running NY resident students up to Syracuse just so they could stand in line and get their licenses renewed.

NeelyCam wrote:

"I am number 2"
"Who is number 1?!"
"You are number 6"
"I'M NOT A NUMBER! I'M A FREE MAN!!"

Somehow I knew that would pop up here. Isn't really much difference between The Village and DMV.

Welcome to the UK, everyone. My driving licence and vehicle tax are done entirely on line. No queuing for me! Also dealt with on line are EHIC (European Health Insurance Card), council tax, passport applications, self assessment tax returns, even voter registration (that's a print and post)

Welcome to 2013!

One year, I tried renewing vehicle registration online, and ended up having to pay an extra $5 to get a duplicate sticker, because I never got the sticker in the mail.

Ironically the government gateway in the UK (that lets you do vehicle licensing,passport, tax etc) was built by Microsoft.

willg wrote:

Ironically

You keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

On topic, I get to renew my car license over the Internet once I get it inspected. No lines for me, at least not until .mo.us decides to redesign its license plates again.