My Soap Box

In some ways I like to think I’m an easy person. I don’t get frustrated or angry easily. Most things I can let go without a lot of trouble. Of course, I’m human. All of the above does happen. Like recently…

Now, unlike most people, I have experience with a lot of DMVs. Six of them to be exact. (And one of them twice.) You see, when you’ve only lived in one state (out of nine, one of them three times and one twice) long enough to renew a driver’s license, you end up with a lot of stories to tell.

For example, standing in line in Massachusetts for over an hour to take a written exam that took me two minutes in order to get a learner’s permit.

Or the lady in Texas who agreed with my answer on my written exam about seat belts because she was from New York and thought Texas should have stricter rules. (Imagine the only friendly person at a Texas DMV being from New York!)

Or, again in Texas when I moved back, and another lady looked at me like I had two heads for being honest. The answer to had I ever held a driver’s license in Texas before was yes. It didn’t say anything on the form about 1999 being too many years ago.

In New Hampshire, you just expected them to be rude. All New Englanders are. I can’t say they were especially rude – neither the first time I was there or the one time I had to renew in the sixteen years I’ve held a license.

Minnesota was a bit odd. It was likely taking a tour of the town of Long Prairie. For you had to go to one place to take your written exam and then drive to another to actually get the license once you passed. For all I know, I was followed from one place to the other to insure I actually could drive – kind of like the driver’s test I never took. There, I had to report the states I had held a license in over the last 10 years. The line wasn’t long enough…and the lady quite impressed.

The one state I will give praise to is Indiana. Despite having to take a written exam, that is the one state that’s got it right. They don’t have a DMV but a BMV. And it’s privately contracted to a company so the state doesn’t run it. Instead, it’s run like a very productive and efficient business because they have to bid on the contract every-so-many-years. The people are very friendly. And, there, when they spell your name wrong, they just correct it and hand you another card. (Which are made on site – no paper thing as you wait for your real license to come in the mail.)

The one state I despise is Pennsylvania. Not because the people there are rude. (They are – but that’s a job requirement if you work for a DMV.) Because of the bureaucracy. Now I can be understanding about the whole we-can’t-change-your-name-the-way-you-want-it-without-this-that-and-the-other-because-we’re-Yankees thing. But when I take months jumping through every loop-hole you’ve created only to have the DMV send me a card with my name misspelled on it (and it’s not misspelled on anything I sent them), I think it is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO FIX IT!!!! But, no, I had to go to the DMV in person with all the same paperwork I had already sent in and get it fixed.

I am honestly starting to wonder why anyone lives in Pennsylvania.