June 30, 2008
DMV Inspections Now Available By Appointment
Do you own a car and have it registered in the District of Columbia? If so, you've already been through the nightmare of attempting to get your vehicle inspected at the District's only inspection facility at 1001 Half Street SW. Many of you have complained that there has to be a more efficient way to conduct inspections - well, now there is. WTOP reports that the D.C. DMV is now accepting reservations for appointments at the inspection station between 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. One word of advice though, for those of you with ESP: appointments scheduled during a major heat wave could get bumped.
Of course, this might not be as much of a respite for drivers as if they were able to get an inspection at any old gas station, like many other areas of the country. Mayor Fenty's office and the DMV talked up deregulating the inspection process back in January, but since then no one's mentioned it. We've put in a call to the DMV regarding the status of that plan and are still waiting to hear back, so we'll let you know when we do. In the meantime, you can click here to make an inspection appointment at the Half Street station. Now if only we could schedule appointments for nearly every other DMV task like they do it in California.
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Read this somewhere else earlier today. I have an appointment for Thursday morning, thank you very much. WOO HOO!!!
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I got my car inspected via appointment about a month ago (so not sure why this is news now, maybe I did it during a trial period or something? I just stumbled across it when looking for the station's hours).
It was fine...I went on a Wednesday afternoon when it isn't normally busy anyway, so there wasn't the line down the block. I pulled up, told the man I had an appointment (didn't have to show anything) and he directed me to a line with about 6 cars in it, as opposed to the 10 or 12 the other lines had.
It still took awhile, but a bit shorter than if I had just showed up on my own. However, I'm not sure what they are planning on doing about enforcing appointments vs. "drive-ins". When I went, it looked as though all you had to do was say you had an appointment to get in the shorter line. No one asked who I was, if I had a confirmation, etc.
Also, the website appears as though you can reserve which lane you would like to go into--I chose a lane, but it didn't matter at all when I arrived. They just pointed me towards the shortest lane, which wasn't the lane I had "reserved" myself in.
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20 false appointments created and counting!
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Forget scheduling inspections -- they need to schedule DMV appointments for vehicle registration (or renewal for those inadvisably miss the deadline for online transactions), new licenses or renewal, transfers, or any other vehicle transation. California has oferred this for years, and it saves the absurdly inefficient DMV system which we view with as much enthusiasm as a trip to the dentist. To be fair, my dentist never makes me wait 1 1/2 only to send me away because my paperwork because my proof of insurance uses the wrong typeface.
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This probably won't be better than my old system, which was showing up half an hour before they close. No line, and they get you through there in a hurry.
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I went last week for an appointment. There was no discernable difference between the line for appts and the other lines. In fact the guy seemed to be putting us in arbitrary lines. my appt was for 10 a.m., I showed up about 10 minutes early and I was out of there about 10:30, so a 40-minute wait, 20 minutes in my car. Probably no different if I had no appointment.
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dank:
showing up half an hour before they close
Best way to get through any DC Government office.
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While the way DC does it broken, but I've often thought that, done right, this is the way to do it. No shady mechanics finding things "wrong" with your car come inspection time. It seems like a pretty massive conflict of interest to have the same people who profit from fixing your car also be those who effectively have control over whether you must fix it in order to keep legally driving it.
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Better yet... the folks at my office who live in MD say that they can typically pay their mechanic $150 (tops!) to get an inspection sticker without any actual inspection.
That "free market" solution elimintates the lines and conflict of interest.
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I had an 8:00 am appointment last week and was finished by 8:20. Even though I did have a to wait a couple of extra minutes so the inspector could finish his breakfast sandwich, I highly recommend making an appointment.
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Here's a hint to avoid the DMV lines:
Go over to the other side of the Anacostia River. The DMV locations are smaller, not metro rail accessible and therefore don't have the insanity of either SW or Georgetown. Granted, you have to still do car inspections in SW, but the other DMV services can be conducted there without issue. I've done it the last two times I needed to change my drivers license or registration. I'm usually in and out in 30 mins or less...