Hemet DMV Reopens!!

Olga Moczygemba renews her driver's license.
Customers at the newly-renovated DMV office in Hemet found a new look but the same old long lines on Monday.

After being closed for about two months, the office reopened to hundreds of people renewing licenses, registering vehicles or taking driving tests.

Juan Rayas arrived at 5:45 a.m. to be first in line when the doors opened at 8.
Rayas has been trying for about a month to renew his driver's license that expires on his birthday next month.

A San Jacinto, resident, he went to the Banning office while Hemet was closed and found such long lines he decided to wait for Hemet to reopen.

New flooring and a seating are complemented by updated data cables, installed to allow the DMV's queuing customer service system to work more efficiently.

One corner of the room contains cubicles for processing driving and written tests.

The 100 chairs filled fast as customers flooded in.

Within an hour all seats were taken and Inter-Con security officer Carol Armstrong stopped people at the door because there wasn't adequate seating left.

"Sometimes it's like this all day, but I think today is busier because it just opened up again," said Armstrong, of San Jacinto.

DMV spokesman Steve Haskins said 160 customers had been served in the first two hours of operation.

"As of 10 a.m., 65 more were waiting in the office with tickets and approximately 100 were waiting to get into the building," said Haskins.

He said a lot of the wait could be avoided if people would make appointments.

Kent Inducta, of Murrieta, was one of only a handful of customers who had scheduled an appointment.

"I went online last week and researched which one was the earliest," he said.

After checking Temecula, San Diego and other offices, he found the Hemet office offered the earliest date.

He said he kept hearing about making an appointment and after seeing the line wrapped around the building he was glad he did.

According to the DMV Web site, the Hemet office reported a wait time at 10 a.m. of six minutes for those with a scheduled appointment versus one hour and 10 minutes for those who didn't.

1200 S. State Street
n
Hemet, 92543
(800)777-0133
Office Hours
Mon., Tues., Thurs., Friday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Services Provided:

Driver License and ID Card Processing

Vehicle Registration

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