Fast Experience at the DMV

I never thought I would write “fast” and “DMV” in the same sentence (other than, perhaps, “I conducted an involuntary fast while waiting all day at the DMV”), but I was actually in and out of there in 10 minutes today while renewing my Driver’s License. In fact, the whole DMV experience was pretty damn good.

First, I made an appointment online at the Oakland Coliseum DMV office. The online form for making appointments was really easy to use. You could see the current wait times at some of the nearby offices, view maps for the offices, find out the earliest available time slot, and more. On a Tuesday afternoon, I was able to get a 9am Thursday slot.

I highly recommend the morning weekday slots at the Oakland Coliseum DMV office. The parking lot was almost deserted. I arrived a few minutes early, waited in line for about thirty seconds, waited on a bench for about 2 minutes, went through the vision test and payment process in just over five minutes (would have been even faster if the guy helping me didn’t have to stop twice to help other colleagues), spent another minute or two getting my thumbprint and photo digitally taken, and then I was walking out the door. Another good thing about this office is you can pay with an ATM or debit card.