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Comment by eddieroger | Hacker News Reader

For additional anecdata, I've had the same experience at the government-run Indiana BMV, and most recently, was able to go in and renew my plates from a kiosk in the lobby without waiting or talking to a human at all. When my wife changed her name and renewed her plates, the whole process took about 10 minutes, including sitting and waiting to talk to one of the 20 or so humans working there.

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CA dmv, practically everything can be done online and through the mail; people love to complain about the lines and how everything is slow but I sincerely don't know what they expect: even when I had to go to the office I always made an appointment, got called in within 10 minutes of arriving, handled whatever I needed to handle expeditiously, and was on my way, and had this same experience in various locations. None of this "I stood in line for a zillion hours, in the sun, snowing, both ways..." nonsense.

TX here. I don’t know the last time I went to the DMV. Everything and I mean everything can be done online

TX here too. My 16-yo just got his learner's permit and that can't be done online. Many locations don't have available appointments for months. Some, such as in SE Texas, have same day appointments. We ended up driving over an hour away to get a same-week appointment.

Months-long wait times are just obscene.

I don't know if this is possible for your use case in TX but my local DMV in OR has a months-long wait for a REAL ID appointment. Or, you can walk in and get it done in about 30 minutes most days. I guess they only have one or two people fully trained to process the applications but similar to getting into a doctor's office when you have an urgent need, they can usually squeeze you in even without an appointment.

The last time I had to go into a DMV in TX was when I had let a motorcycle's registration lapse >1yr. It took going in-person to show some documents (I think the title?) to get it re-registered.

Other than that, for someone who already has their vehicle properly registered and they don't need a new photo for the DL, yeah you never really need to go in.

Also, last time I went in, they offered a text message queue system. Sign up online ahead of time, pick a rough time slot, they text you when you're ~10 minutes and then ~5 minutes until your number, then when you get in your number is one of the next ones up. I spent maybe five minutes total in there.

EDIT: Thinking back on that, it wasn't the DMV that I had to go to for that lapsed registration. It was the county tax office. So yeah, haven't been to a DMV in many years.

Lots of things can be done online in Indiana. Plate renewal is one of them.

Initial vehicle registration isn't if you didn't buy from a dealer and need a title.

One you are logged into the BMV site, they now have realtime chat that is prompt and helpful. When I do need to go in, I use that to make sure I have everything I need.

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