DMV rant of the day

We finally went to the DMV yesterday to register our car and get Mass. driver licenses. If there's one thing in life you can count on (besides death and taxes) it's the ridiculous wait at the DMV. We were there for two hours to complete our three transactions which totaled approximately 15 minutes. Now, in a business setting, any company that required you to wait two hours for 15 minutes worth of service (mind you, we had to get three separate numbers and wait three separate times and we even cheated a little by getting our next number before our first transaction was complete) would be out of business in a matter of weeks. But not the DMV! They have a monopoly. So we got to wrestle with two kids while trying to fill out forms and get new license plates. Oh, and one more thing that's ridiculous about the DMV in Massachusetts, it costs $90 for an out-of-state driver license conversion vs. the $40 for a new license; my licensing process required no road test and no paper test whereas a new license does...explain to me why my license costs twice as much please.

Now here's where the money geek in me comes into play: For my license, I met with a DMV clerk for 10 minutes. She made two photocopies of my documents, gave me a temporary paper license, and told me I will receive a new plastic driver license in the mail in a week. At this rate, a clerk could process roughly 6 out-of-state driver licenses profiting $90 each for a total of $540 an hour. Not too shabby. I am going to take a wild guess that the lady who helped me makes at best $20/hour (including her benefits package), the plastic license and mailing $1 tops, 2 copies for a total of $.10, 1 temporary license $.10, and overhead at maybe $25/hour (guessing that this is on the high end). Do the math folks. DMV cost for 1 out-of-state license conversion, approx. $8.70, multiplied by 6 per hour equals $52.20. That means the DMV is profiting $487.80 per hour just based on the work done by one clerk. We are all in the wrong business folks! (especially me since the profit margin on being a stay-at-home-mom is pretty low :) )

The kids are both doing great and are still a little overwhelmed with all the new, fun toys. Harrison loves his infrared remote control car from Poppy and Barbara and plays with that several times a day. This is a pretty cool toy. When you push the button on the remote, it shines a red light. The car will follow that light. It's really easy for Harrison to control and he "gets it" because he can see the red light on the floor. Josh and Harrison's favorite trick with the car is to put it in the kitchen oven (toy kitchen of course) and shine the light on the floor just in front of it. The car has enough strength to push down the door and come flying out of the oven. Silly boys.