Johnson County Kansas DMV

Today was the day that I was scheduled to pick up the scooter that I call Salt...  And I needed to have its paper work and title processed by the Kansas DMV here in Johnson County...  As you know, we have been in the process of installing the new computer system for license tags here in Kansas so I knew this was to be trouble.......

I also need that tag for the utility trailer that was due way back in February, so I am up and on the computer at 7:30 sharp when they begin allowing checkins.  After a few attempts because there were too many of us all at once, I got a place in their waiting line....  The system sends out text messages to your cell phone as to how you are progressing, so you don't have to sit there all day.  But it said I was only 55 minutes back.  Cool!

I rode Pepper over to the Suzuki dealer and traded for Salt.  I left Pepper for an oil change....  Salt and I went to the DMV by way of a stop at McDonalds for a biscuit.  When I arrived, my hour was about up, only to find out that I was now 2 hours behind......... What!!

Well it  seems that the computer system went down yesterday afternoon and all those folks came back this morning and got a free pass to the front of the line....  And all of us for today had to wait....  I was still waiting at 1:30 in the afternoon.......  When the computer went down again.....  I was first in line to be helped next.........  My mouth fell open in disbelief!

It was supposed to take an hour to get it restarted, so I went to Wendy's for the little burger.  At three o'clock they still didn't have it back up and the manager started to run us thru the line taking our papers and information so we could be processed on a night shift....  I finally left the office about 4 PM without any new tags or registration.  But I do have a promise that they will call me on a will call basis when the paper work is processed.

Of course by now, Pepper is done at the dealership, so I ride home and Loyce and I return with the car for Pepper..  Seems that this oil change is quite labor extensive and the bill was $300.  Wow!  To change 4 quarts of oil and that rear end lube......  The motorhome wasn't much more than that, and it holds 17 quarts and has two filters......  I guess I never asked how much the bill would be, so its my fault on that one..

Retired Rod

Kansas DMV

I wonder if things at the Johnson County DMV are not a little testy right now??  I have a small trailer license to renew, and have been trying to get an appointment for the last several days.  Seems that the office opens up at 7:30 and everyone is getting appointments on line and filling up the whole day all at once....

They are hopelessly behind the curve and can't catch up because they have a new computer system and it takes twice as long to renew a tag than before.  The State of Kansas has off loaded much of the work onto the counties.......  So, no wonder it takes longer....

This is the official post from them this morning.......

Johnson County Meets with State to Discuss Motor Vehicle Concerns 

JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS (May 16, 2012) — Johnson County officials met with the top officials of  the Kansas Department of Revenue in Topeka on Tuesday, May 15, to discuss the long wait times of customers and other impacts to Johnson County Motor Vehicle Offices following the implementation of the new state-wide motor vehicle computer system. 

The Johnson County delegation included Ed Eilert, chairman of the Johnson County Board of Commissioners; Vice Chairman and Sixth District Commissioner Calvin Hayden; County Manager Hannes Zacharias; County Treasurer Thomas Franzen; and Chief Deputy Treasurer Amy MeekerBerg.

They met with Nick Jordan, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Revenue; Kansas Director of Motor Vehicles Donna Shelite; the DMV Modernization project director, and staff from 3M Corporation, the state’s vendor for the new computer system.

County officials expressed their concerns with the new computer system.  State officials are considering possible solutions to address the County’s concerns and will respond to County officials by the end of this week.

To address the long wait times, Johnson County staff have been putting in long hours, and the County Manager has approved filling eight vacant positions in the Motor Vehicle Division.

Since the new system implementation, both Motor Vehicles Offices have had to discontinue accepting new customers by late morning each day. Motor vehicle transactions, including vehicle registration renewal and title processing, currently require twice the time to process since the system became operational on May 8. With the implementation of the new system, the State of Kansas has also transitioned additional workload to all 105 counties in Kansas. 

So there you have it, but I am not really sure how they have helped the situation at hand.  Hiring a bunch of new people that don't know a thing about registrations or the laws or how it should work.  That sounds like a good solution for the backlog of thousands of angry customers......

I was out for much of the afternoon making appointments for other things that need to be completed this month.  An official oil change for the scooter since the intermediate gear case and the rear gear case need changed as well.  Remember I wasn't too fond of the gear lube on the little scooter so perhaps a dealer change is in the works.

And then it was the eye glasses shop to make an appointment for the eye doctor.........  Who was on Vacation and won't be back until after the Holiday..  Doesn't anybody still work?

I guess not me, but my retirement was official some years ago..

Retired Rod

Leave the Line?

I never know what to report when we have spent 3 and a half hours driving to central Missouri as the focal point of our day.  But wait, the day started way before that when I realized that the license tag on the utility trailer needed renewed.  Ya, like last February..........

So I hopped on the scooter and drove over to the DMV at about 8 AM this morning.  I knew they had been remodeling the computer software last week, and I thought an early start might help to get things along...............  Uh, they opened up at 7:30 and when I arrived 198 folks had applied ahead of me..

Estimated wait time was 6 1/2 hours............  What?  Like three o'clock in the afternoon.......?  But by that time I had a position in the virtual line with my cell phone number enrolled for update text messages from the computer.

And yes they did update me about every half hour, and it only got worse.  Seemed that my position in line never improved at all, and the amount of time needed to serve each person became more......

Some 4 1/2 hours later they were still reporting that it would take 3 hours for me to be served.  After a couple of test texts, sending letters that the computer didn't accept, I got a message with the allowable responses, of which I was looking for an L for leave the line.......  I tried Q for quit and E for end and C for cancel, but none of them did anything.  I did get a charge out of M for add more time to your appointment,  you know, if your running late.........

But after an L text it said that if I wanted to come back and get in line later today I wouldn't loose my place.....  We left about 2 PM and were here by about 5 :30.  And no the cops didn't get me with my expired tag on the trailer......

We had the 5 year old grand daughter with us for the ride and we enjoyed talking to her most of the way to get her perspective of the things she saw out the window.  We didn't have any of those kids say the darnedest things moments, but sometimes she can come up with some hum dingers..........

Once here it was "go into cleaning mode" on overtime, since the rest of her family was arriving in about another 4 hours or so.  The house hadn't been used since last September and the bugs had made it their home.........

So Mother's day will be at the Lake Place this year.....

Retired Rod