For months, my recommendation to anybody renewing a California driver’s license has been direct and unwavering:
Do not go to a DMV area workplace and wrestle with the written checks, which have been plagued by complicated and irrelevant questions. Do log on, as a substitute, and from the consolation of your individual house, take the “NO FAIL” eLearning course.
So, once I bought my license renewal discover within the mail just a few weeks in the past, I knew simply what to do.
Or so I assumed.
I hoped for a straightforward cruise across the block, like the handfuls of readers who despatched me their endorsements of eLearning.
It’s “implausible,” stated Robert, a Studio Metropolis psychologist, who discovered eLearning “much less worrying” than the normal check since you’re at house and there aren’t any “choosy” or “imprecise” questions. He accomplished the course, which is extra of a driver-ed rules-of-the-road refresher than a check, and completed up with the required journey to a area workplace for a photograph and a watch examination.
However others wrote to me in frustration, saying they couldn’t determine the way to entry eLearning, or that it hiccuped and froze, or that they went to DMV workplaces to finish the method and have been advised there was no document of them having taken the course.
Now it was time for me to roll the cube.
I turned on my laptop, went to DMV.CA.GOV and simply navigated to a tab for “customary driver’s license ID” and “REAL ID driver’s license/ID.” I already had REAL ID, so I proceeded on a path to an ordinary renewal and was prompted to arrange a DMV account (which was swell as a result of who isn’t dying to memorize one other username and password?). That took a number of minutes, after which I bumped up towards the primary of a number of glitches.
A yellow warning signal knowledgeable me: “You aren’t eligible for on-line renewal proper now.”
However instantly beneath that warning was this:
“To avoid wasting time, begin the method to resume on-line and end your renewal at a DMV workplace.”
So what was it going to be? Was I eligible? Ineligible? Had I entered the DMV twilight zone?
I clicked on the “to avoid wasting time” line and ultimately landed on the Digital Take a look at Middle, so apparently I wasn’t ineligible in spite of everything. There, I used to be given a alternative of eLearning or the “On-line Data Take a look at,” a digital model of the common written check, which I knew to keep away from.
In California, when you’re 70 or older, you’re required to take a check to resume your license — each 5 years.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Instances)
I selected eLearning and proceeded to the fee web page, the place I used to be instructed handy over the $45 renewal payment. However after I put it on my bank card, I used to be deserted, like somebody who was dumped out of a automobile on the facet of the highway. There was no option to click on ahead or click on again.
A well-designed program would have made the subsequent step crystal clear. As a substitute, I used to be closed out of the appliance system. I checked texts and emails, however couldn’t discover any affirmation of my $45 fee. I went again into my DMV account, however couldn’t determine the way to decide up the place I had left off.
Had I made a mistake? Had the system crashed?
I made a decision to repeat the entire course of, and paid one other $45, assuming my first fee had by no means been processed. And as quickly as I did, I used to be closed out once more, similar to earlier than.
I regarded again by means of emails from readers who’d had related issues. I scanned the DMV web site for any clues as to what had gone improper. After which I noticed that I’d simply been despatched two emails from the DMV saying the company had obtained my two purposes for REAL-ID, with two equivalent units of directions to go to a DMV workplace and produce proof of citizenship and residency.
There was no point out of eLearning.
It’s value noting that DMV director Steve Gordon was a tech government who left Silicon Valley 5 years in the past on a mission to reform and modernize the notoriously backward, user-unfriendly company. He needed to make it simpler for purchasers to conduct enterprise from house somewhat than having to develop previous standing in line at area workplaces.
The E in eLearning, he as soon as advised me, stands for “enjoyment.”
I used to be starting to marvel when the enjoyment would start. I used to be now $90 within the gap with nothing to indicate for it. So I referred to as DMV spokesperson Anita Gore to inform her in regards to the glitches, and whereas we have been chatting, I bought an electronic mail that caught my consideration.
“Please cease telling us the DMV on-line providers work,” stated La Crescenta resident Mary Mirch, whose timing was excellent.
Mirch, a retired faculty administrator, stated she was making use of for a license renewal and attempting to get to the eLearning course, however as a substitute obtained affirmation of an utility for REAL-ID.
However, like me, she hadn’t utilized for REAL-ID.
DMV director Steve Gordon was a tech government who left Silicon Valley 5 years in the past on a mission to reform and modernize the company.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Instances)
I thanked her for proving that I wasn’t a dummy.
Like me, Mirch repeated your complete course of, bought the identical consequence the second time round, and was in a DMV on-line holding sample for 45 minutes, ready for assist.
“What a multitude,” she stated.
Greater than an hour after my troubles started, the primary signal of hope arrived by electronic mail. The DMV despatched me a hyperlink to the eLearning course. Mirch stated she ultimately bought a hyperlink, too, about two hours after she utilized.
A number of questions got here to thoughts:
Why weren’t we advised, after fee, to search for an emailed hyperlink to eLearning in a few hours?
Why did we’ve to attend for an electronic mail hyperlink in any respect, somewhat than going straight from fee to eLearning?
And why did we get directions to finish REAL-ID purposes?
Mirch and I agreed the system is unnecessarily clunky and complicated, or no less than it was on the day we tried to make use of it. The DMV recommends eLearning, which started two years in the past, so why not drop different choices? It will additionally assist to wash up all of the complicated litter on the internet pages and have a tab that claims, merely, “For those who’re 70 and older and need to use the eLearning course to resume your driver’s license, click on right here.”
Estela Lopez, government director of the L.A. Downtown Industrial District, advised me she’s fairly tech savvy however had roughly the identical expertise Mirch and I had.
“It makes you’re feeling dumb, and that’s what I don’t need seniors to really feel,” Lopez stated. She was below the impression, because of the REAL-ID snafu, that she was imagined to take her passport and utility payments to the DMV workplace when it was time for her picture and eye examination. So she did as instructed, solely to be advised she didn’t want any of that.
“I simply need them to know that no, we’re not clicking on the improper tab, we’re not urgent the improper button,” Lopez stated. “They’re not placing sufficient advertising and marketing and love into this. In the event that they have been, it wouldn’t be this complicated.”
There’s another factor that Mary Mirch, Estela Lopez and I’ve in widespread.
All of us thought the eLearning course was fairly good, once we lastly bought to it.
It’s an unlimited enchancment over the normal a number of alternative check. You can begin and cease the video, working at your individual tempo, with seven animated mini-courses providing refreshers on the foundations of the highway and secure navigation. One part was a bit like a online game by which it’s important to click on on a parked car and safely drag it into the proper lane of site visitors on a busy highway.
On the finish of every part, you get a brief quiz with three attainable solutions, and when you guess improper, you may guess once more. No trick questions. No dumb questions. No want to check a handbook earlier than beginning.
I used to be executed in about 45 minutes, and my go to to the Glendale DMV workplace for a brand new picture and a watch examination was a snap. Workplace managers Wanda Jackson and Patty Carranza have been working the home windows with good cheer and really telling purchasers it was a pleasure to serve them. Having made an appointment forward of time helped get me previous lengthy traces, and I used to be out and in in half-hour.
So I believe there have been enhancements within the DMV tradition below Gordon’s reign, and if you should renew your license after 70, eLearning is certainly the best way to go. The issue is getting there.
I forwarded emails from a number of exasperated readers to the DMV, together with no-brainer fixes recommended by Mirch. Gore advised me the DMV appreciates the suggestions and is engaged on enhancements, together with a repair of the REAL ID glitch and “making our web site language extra clear.”
OK, I’ll control that. However within the state that’s house to Silicon Valley, at a public company run by a former tech government, it shouldn’t take this lengthy to get it proper.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
