Horror stories, anger mount as computer woes grind MVC traffic to a halt

A third computer problem in a week on Friday at Motor Vehicle Commission Agencies forced drivers to wait for up to two hours, sometimes outside in choking humidity.

MVC officials blamed the problems on a computer glitch that prevented its facilities from processing license transactions. The problem, which hit about noon, was fixed about an hour later.

But the residual waits saw customers snaked outside of agencies, with anger growing worse with each passing hour.

"This is the worst I've seen it," said Karla Polar of Linden, as she arrived at the Rahway agency. "I've never seen this kind of line before."

The MVC said it deployed additional staff at its busier agencies, and that lines grew shorter as the day progressed.

But drivers such as Jane Raab of Florham Park said they hadn't seen as bad of a wait in years. Raab waited with her daughter, who took her road test Friday morning.

"I've been in the USA for 25 years and I don't remember it being this bad, we've been waiting two hours to get in," she said. "What if it was pouring rain?"

Raab said she went to the Springfield agency on Thursday to buy stickers that are required for teen drivers, a simple task that she said took her an hour and twenty minutes.

"A police officer said there were no pens," she said. "There has to be a way to do this better."

She suggested having employees in kiosks along the line to check people's forms and documents to start the process before they get into the agency.

"If they have your driver's license in the system, they should let you do things online," Raab said. "You can print airline tickets out online, they should let you print things out from online."

Don Colanduoni of Middlesex was near the front of the line and said he'd been standing in it for two hours after passing his Commercial Drivers License test.

"The last time, I was here from opening until 1:30. It's terrible," he said. "It seems like every time I come here the computers always go down. In Somerville, it was the same thing. They need better computers."

Some drivers said they came from as far as Newark, hopscotching between agencies in search of a shorter wait.

While there wasn't a line snaking outside the South Plainfield motor vehicle agency earlier Friday, customers said they waited between 90 minutes and more than two hours to conduct business.

"Two and a half hours exactly," said Cee Cee Miller of Plainfield, as she and her husband J.T. Miller emerged from the agency with a duplicate driver's license. "We were here yesterday and the computer system shut down. We were not happy."

Both remembered that Gov. Chris Christie came to the South Plainfield agency in April to help a caller to his "Ask The Governor" radio show obtain a learner's permit for her son. Later that month, he announced a program to put MVC staff through customer service training.

The Millers said that training is needed.

"Some of the attitudes of the workers is miserable, a woman at the desk was helpful, but just rude in the way they talk to you," J.T. Miller said. "They need a fast-track line, it shouldn't take a half-a-day for something simple."

Cee Cee Miller held up her thumb along with a handful of documents she needed to get a duplicate license.

"Why can't we use fingerprints? You know it's mine," she said.

Abhay Gangal of Avenel said he spent 90 minutes in the South Plainfield agency renewing his license and still wasn't done when he stepped outside to get ear buds out of his car.

"They give you a token, it's up to number 41 and mine is 75," he said. "This was my first attempt (at South Plainfield), I go to Rahway, but it's worse, I couldn't park my car."

"The most precious thing people have is their time, government can do a better job," Raab said.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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