I don’t think so. I’ve never done it that way before, the DMV has always mailed me the paperwork around 2 months in advance of the deadline, then I mail them a check for the amount stated along with part of the form they sent me, sometimes have to also include proof of insurance. If it were possible for me to download the paperwork myself, wouldn’t the DMV write me back, responding to my letter to them in a polite manner, stating that I could do it myself online?
Another funny story, at the start of Covid couldn’t drive Corolla, and couldn’t drive truck either … lol… the reason I couldn’t drive the truck is b/c the DMV claimed the truck wasn’t insured. Yet it had the same insurance it had always had, for many years. It seems a clerk somewhere mistyped the VIN into a database. Until that error got corrected, I couldn’t drive either car or truck. With no way to get heavy groceries, I had to switch to canned beer, & carry 30 cans of beer about a mile. The worse part of that was having to drink beer from a can. Tastes much better in a bottle. What a state! What a country!
As far as on-line registration renewal, it seems like it would just take more work on my part, compared to simply receiving the paperwork in the mail automatically from the DMV. In any event I would still have to mail the DMV a check, and I wouldn’t have their pre-printed envelope which makes sure the check goes to the right DMV department. On-line registration presents too many opportunities for mistakes imo.
Each state is different. I was in NY last year helping my sister and brother-in-law. Sister was in the hospital and brother-in-law isn’t all there. So I helped with paying the bills. One of their tax bills had an option of paying on-line. So I get to the URL…and it basically said - Print out this form, then fill it out and send it in. They were easily 20 years behind in technology.
One guys that works for me use to work for a company in MA called Idemia. They write the software for over 80% of all the states DMV’s. It’s not easy because of the back-end systems each state has. Some or still running on old IBM mainframes from the 80’s. Modernizing these states would cost MILLIONS…but also save them MILLIONS. But states run their budgets differently then companies.
I don’t see the point of even using that kind of website, easier & less expensive to let the DMV mail the paperwork to you, then you can mail it back to them with a check. Any clerical error is on the DMV, not on you. Nothing saved, you’d have to mail the check no matter how how you obtained the form.
Not dissing DMV’s by the way. They have a very complicated job, and don’t decide the policies themselves. The state’s politicians decide the DMV’s policies. If blame is to be cast, that’s where it should go.
Fair point. I could – in theory * – use the website method to advance the registration process far enough to take the Corolla to the local emissions testing shop. I wouldn’t need to get a temporary permit, emissions shop is nearby, very unlikely I’d ever get a ticket for driving w/expired registration.
But should I do it that way, or insist the DMV answer my written query? I’m a taxpayer after all. We’re talking about our employees after all, and shouldn’t our employees politely, courteously, and in a professional and timely manner, answer every written query they receive?
By “in theory”, I mean this method not even be applicable if car has PNO (planned no operation ) status.
It takes 2 minutes to renew my vehicle registration via the DMV web site, no stamps, no envelopes, no checks, been digital for 15 years.
I must mail an emission test exemption form to the state for one of my vehicles, last year it was 2 months before my renewal decals arrived. I imagine they have one old woman opening envelopes in Carson City for renewal by mail.
Both. Insisting on an answer is more fun if you already have the registration. Just don’t give the game away. Also, @nevada_545 has a good point. With a lot of online services the state has reduced clerical staff. It’s a double whammy for you.
Carson city? I thought you were in California like George. I think it is not so much cutting back on staff as can’t find anyone to work. I’m not big but I ran across a couple kids at the lumber yard that must have just turned 16. I was afraid they were going to hurt themselves moving boxes. Then at Napa a couple days ago, two ladies at the counter. One about retirement age and the other young. They were ok though so no complaints.
At the height of the pandemic, when the hours at NJ Motor Vehicle Commission offices were limited, long lines of frustrated customers could often be seen waiting outside these offices.
One of the newspapers decided to interview people at various locations, and the interview always included a question regarding exactly what those people were trying to accomplish at the NJMVC office. It turned out that somewhere between 60-70% of the griping people were standing there for extended periods of time in order to accomplish something that they could have done online, in the comfort of their own home.
When asked why they didn’t avail themselves of the online availability for most transactions, the fuming folks pleased ignorance. In other words, they never even tried to use the online services, and instead blindly went to a NJMVC office, stood on long lines, and complained about the level of inconvenience.
It might be these folks were too lazy to try the website. But it could also be the case that theyd commonicated the problem to the DMV in writing, b ut the DMV failed to reply that there was no reason to come to the DMV, the problem could be handled using their website. Also must remember that not everyone has internet access. I didn’t have any internet access at all during the worst phase of Covid. Eventually I figured out how to access the internet using a friend’s discarded cell phone via a Taco Bell WIFI hot spot, but that method was very difficult to do anything complicated. Entering data using only the cell phone’s keys was especially problematic, unlikely to be successful filling out DMV forms.
@Nevada_545 says he lives in or near Las Vegas, Nevada. Carson City is the capitol of Nevada. (CC has some excellent public golf courses btw). Las Vegas is a frequent Calif tourist destination, so Nevada545 probably assists a bevy of California customers, needs to know about Calif DMV rules.
At any rate minnesota has had mail in for license plates for years and I’d guess you don’t have to use snail mail anymore. But when I get my notice of plates due, I just physically go down to get them. I just like to do it in person instead of waiting a couple weeks for the mail. I know the guy that runs the local dmv and worked together on hvac assembly in 1968. Never had an issue.
During the lockdown it got a little silly. You’d get there and get in line by phone. Then sit in your car or stand outside until they called you to come in. Looking at the clientele in line, I just stayed in the car. Same reason I avoided going inside Walmart.
On line is fine but I just like to pick my stuff up local.
No it isn’t. All that checking can be done through the URL. It would be so much easier…faster…and far far more accurate with far less chances of errors if it was automated. I’ve written this type of software for companies.
Agreed. And many times it’s very politically motivated. Like one of our Ex Governors here in NH who wanted to use his company to network the state office buildings.
About all I can say, working for years for big tech companies in Silicon Valley, I’ve discovered a whole lot of computer software bugs. Not complaining, my discovering those bugs is a good part of the company’s justification for my paychecks … lol …
One of the software managers said her staff never made those sorts of software bugs, so I need not spend time looking there. She was soon unemployed … lol …
Yeah ain’t it fun to live long enough to see your boss fired? And real tears about how she was going to pay for her new house. Didn’t seem to care about anyone else’s house.
I didn’t want her to lose her job, but I was forced to point out the software problems I discovered to the management staff when I found them. If those problems were shipped to customers, it would have cost the company millions of dollars. Her mistake was making a claim during a business meeting that was impossible to meet.
So what. Bugs happen. That’s what good design and testing is for. And it really depends on what level of bug. Simple bugs like a misspelling is meaningless. Level one bugs that prevent the site from working correctly is something else. Before a piece of our software is released it’s fully tested inhouse and with Beta customers. We design solutions for telecom companies. We process well over 100,000,000 successful transactions a day. A good designed system is several magnitudes more reliable and robust than being done by hand. Over the past 50 years of software development, I’ve created countless of software products (Mainframe, desktop and Web) that were previously done by humans. Not one ever reverted back.
Well the dmv software had so many bugs, it was near impossible for the local folks to transact business, and it was after millions being spent to a software company. I’ve been through several large scale
accounting, purchasing, and inventory conversions, and they all started off with so many problems, almost unusable to make a purchase or pay a bill. And these were software vendors with analysis and design in the hands of the mainframe professionals. Had we not had our own home grown software to issue purchase orders and track inventory in the meantime, we would have been dead in the water.
As you might expect, I have lots of stories about difficult to resolve software bugs. MNH is correct, well-designed and tested software solutions are usually the best comprehensive solution, and more and more software involvement with our lives isn’t going away anytime soon.
Ok, I’ll still share one story. Similar to what happened w/the initial design of the Hubble telescope. This product’s successful introduction required two pieces of software. Each piece was worked on separately, by its own team. For some reason the management team didn’t think it necessary to continually test to make sure the two pieces were compatible with each other. Turned out to be impossible to make the two pieces work together, product introduction delayed by many months.
