You MUST go to the Motor Vehicles Service NS office to renew your drivers license. You can’t do it online because they need to get a picture of you. OK. I get it. Why, though, do you have to wait in the same line with literally a hundred other people who are there doing all sorts of other things? Why is it that the three people at the cameras who are sitting on their hands most of the time can’t take payment AND take your picture AND give you a new license? Why do you have to wait in two lines?
I was number A150 when I arrived. I was dismayed to see that the first “A” number after 5 minutes was A67. After 30 minutes, it was A73. 6 numbers in 30 minutes. A quick calculation told me it would be a 12 hour wait, unless a few people died waiting! And we call this SERVICE Nova Scotia? Someone must be getting serviced somewhere, but let me tell you, it wasn’t there!
This is a BROKEN process, people!!!! When are we going to fix it?!?!?! —Better ways to spend my lunch hour… I mean … my day!!!!
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.
What do you expect from a government run operation ?
Or did you wait until the last minute like too many other people ?
Why the fuck are you doing it at the end/beginning of the month? Go in during the middle of the month and usually there’s no wait or a very short one. That’s what you get for waiting til the last minute to get your shit done.
First time I renewed my license, it was a 10 minute wait in my hometown and cost me just over 40 bucks.
Last year in Halifax, almost a 2 hour wait and cost me over 70 bucks. Was not impressed. I will definitely pack a lunch and put a movie on my ipod when I go back in 2014.
BT – licences expire on the holder’s birthday, not the end of the month. Maybe the OP’s licence expires in a couple of weeks? The whole point of “expires on your birthday” was to reduce/eliminate backlogs and long wait times at the beginning/end of the month. Somthing isn’t working.
Yes but registrations are the end of the month. If your birthday is at the end/beginning then come in a couple of weeks early and avoid the rush. Common sense.
The point being the end of the month is a ridiculous time to go.
Wow, you guys should try it in TO sometime. I got my license changed in less than a half an hour here. Fifteen minutes for change of registration and when I had to change my address it was around 25 minutes and EVERYONE at Access NS was a pleasure to deal with! And it was all done instantly! No waiting! Try that in ON!
I heart the guys and dolls at Access NS!
Lunch hour? When everyone else wants to get errands done in an hour? Really OP? Access NS is not the problem here.
Don’t they call the numbers as you arrive? Like if a Bwhatever gets in before an Awhatever, and a C whatever gets in before them the C is called, then the B then the A instead of A-B-C?
My dad always told me that the best day to go to motor vehicles is xmas eve day to renew a license. In-and-out.
straight up, I was B140 and I walked in there they were on B70…. WTF. I have better things to do with my time than wait 3 hours to drop 749$ on taxes for my vehicle, plates, registration and a new license.
It’s all privately run here in Alberta so while it’s still a pain, at least there’s a bit of competition and you have some choice of who to go to to get your shit done. Also some cute babes who work at some of those places, so there’s usually some decent eye-candy while you wait too!
The 40-something year-old ginger dude at the Access Nova Scotia Information Desk at the West End Mall has always been pretty helpful. He reminds me of an older Archie Andrews.
yeah o.p., that place is a fucking riot, ain’t it. i went to get my wheeler permit last month, and holy sweet jesus, waited for something like 2 and a half hours. so fucking much for progress.
I was thrilled with my service here – I went mid month and waited about 20 minutes. It was cheaper than PEI, where I moved from and it is for 5 years not 3!!
Just wait until the DMV moves to their new location in Bayer’s Lake near Rona. Good luck finding parking there.
Yup Access Nova Scotia. Another in that long line of oxymorons like Civil Servant, Journalistic Ethics, Independent Inquiry, Non-Violent Protest…
You go at the busiest time of day and then complain that it’s Access’s fault you waited so long? I went in at 10:00 on a Friday morning. I had no sooner taken the little number tag, when I heard my number called. I was out of there in less than ten minutes. I actually joked with the guy about not expecting to be called that quickly. He said, “well, you can sit down for awhile if you like”. ‘No thanks, I’m not complaining.’
Last year I went in to renew my license, my plates and register my new car. I was out in less than 20 minutes. It’s not Access NS’s fault that you’re a complete douchebag moron OP. Going in at the busiest time of day and then complaining that it’s their fault. You deserve that kind of wait.
Avoid the line-ups, sell the car and get a bus pass or a bike 🙂
HAPPY BIRTHDAY OP!!!
I’ve generally had good luck at Access NS simply by going first thing in the morning. On my last trip though I expected a wait and got one – it was after work, and while I really didn’t care pretty clearly a lot of the other customers did…their problem really.
I’ll say this much though about Access NS staffing – it can’t be *that* unusual that suppertime sees practically every seat at the Dartmouth centre taken, plus about 25 or 30 people standing up. So having just 4 counter staff plus 1 supervisor seems a bit retarded, especially when you know that some customers are going to need 15+ minutes of attention…I clocked one customer who occupied a counter for over 30 minutes. I’ve noticed OTOH that during work hours there are considerably more staff on hand.
So, although the advice to any Access NS customer is to plan smart and pick off-peak days and times, I figure SNS could go half way and consider the convenience of the public, not the convenience of their own employees, when they do up the shifts. As it is I figure the managers are gun-shy of the union.