Every year the time comes for me to renew my vehicle registration. I go to the DMV website, enter in the code they send me, fill out my credit card information, and I’m done. This year was different than most but nothing I couldn’t handle, a required smog check. Although I could swear I had a smog check last year, sometime since the last time they made a pain-in-the-ass policy change in an attempt to prove the relevance of their employees. Let me explain the difference of how vehicle registration works now (when a smog check is required) versus how it worked before and how I get to the bottom of it.
Bear in mind I live in California so other states are probably much more efficient in their processes. Before it was simple, I renew my registration online, get my smog check, the place where I got the smog check transmits the test results to the DMV, and the DMV sends me my new tags. In 2010 it blows. I renewed my registration online, then wait a minute…the confirmation page tells me that once I get a smog check I have to PHYSICALLY drive my ass to the DMV, wait for hours in line, and have someone enter the smog check confirmation into the computer. Could a government-run agency have become more inefficient in a year’s time? Yes, absolutely! Thinking this was some sort of mistake I decided to go to the DMV for answers (I had to go anyways because I lost my driver’s license while hanging out with TheDiplomat and Big Skeezy and needed a replacement).
Fast forward four hours of my life wasted, the DMV worker verified that I did in fact need to bring my smog check paperwork in before I could get my new tags. I took the paperwork for my new replacement license over to window 8 where they had me take a new photo for my license. When it was my turn I put my middle finger on the thumbprint scanner then smiled big for my new photo.
