DMV Delays Threaten Farm Productivity

By: Heather Lifsey

When I was in college at Virginia Tech, my friends and I used to camp out for football tickets. These days, my friends are camping out to get into the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). I recently talked with a farmer who needed to get North Carolina driver’s licenses for her H-2A workers, each of whom had a valid driver’s license from Mexico. Those licenses should be accepted if the workers were ever stopped by law enforcement, but they were advised it would be better to have a U.S. license. The farmer called the local DMV and was told it would be more than 90 days before she could get an appointment. Three months is a lifetime in farming, and harvest season would be over by then.

Shortly after that conversation, I was talking with a friend whose children needed to take their driving exam. They arrived at the DMV office at 4:30 a.m. on a Wednesday. The office opened at 7:00 a.m., and the first 20 people in line were seen before the office officially started taking appointments at 8:00 a.m. Those who didn’t make the cut could stay in line until Noon or come back another day. He and his children were in spots 6, 7 and 8, so they made it inside, but there were around 45 people left behind.