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Patrick to RMV: Tear down that fee
By adamg on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 10:51am
Word comes from Patrick aide-de-camp Doug Rubin that Gov. Patrick has told the RMV to rescind that $5 fee for talking to a live person, and find other ways to get people to interact with the registry online rather than in person.
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Comments
Good start, now let's go further
Why not issue both licenses and registrations for a 20-year term, instead of the current 5 years? Now you can cut back on branches without any inconvenience to customers.
Wouldn't that also cut back
Wouldn't that also cut back on revenue?
I'm more inclined to expand the RVM by requiring everyone to take the written tests every 5 years to renew, and a driving test every 10 years. Fail the written test and you need to retake that plus pass a driving test.
We have some horrible drivers. I bet forcing them to remember the rules of the road might help a bit.
Screw that!
Now, what he *should* have said is "keep the fee, I like the fee...but here's a few grand to put 2-4 computer terminals inside each of the RMV locations so that people without online access can use the website to do the required actions to save the $5 should they not have access elsewhere (oh, and here's a list of libraries to print out for anyone who complains the 2-4 terminals are always busy)".
THEN, he should have shifted the RMV hours from M-F to Tues-Sat and charged an extra $10-$20 premium to go to the RMV on Saturday.
I did not mind the idea of a
I did not mind the idea of a fee for people who could have done it online and having computer terminals, maybe ones that look like ATM's, at the RMV. If I still want to talk to a person I would happily pay the 5 dollars to stand in a shorter line. Of course I would say rescind the 5 dollar fee for anyone who HAS to visit a person and can not do it online.
I also like Ron Newmans idea of going to longer terms. I would do 10 years between the ages of 21 and 65/70 as the difference between 70 and 80 can be quite big.
Despite what big government and others would have
us believe, there are still MANY people out there (especially the elderly) who are either not computer savvy or choose not to conduct transactions on-line, for whatever reason.
The RMV did the right thing when they first launched on-line transactions - they gave people a DISCOUNT if they conducted their business on-line. This practice should be reinstated, as it is the proper way to encourage on-line transactions, and it shouldn't matter whether the computer a person is using is at home, work, a public library, or in the RMV office itself (I totally agree with the concept of having self-serve terminals in RMV offices).
And former Governor Weld had what I thought was a great idea - lifetime vehicle registration provided you kept in good standing (current insurance, up to date on paying excise taxes, etc.). When you buy a new car, OK pay a transfer fee and the sales tax, but otherwise you can keep the same registration.
As a sidebar, it's amazing how many people I know who automatically get new plates (and needlessly pay extra money to the RMV) instead of tranferring their current registration when they buy a new car.
I think..
its actually better for the RMV to renew stickers and registrations every few years because the RMV makes a lot of money on surcharges from cities and towns where people don't pay parking tickets and moving violations. It's easier to handle if you have to renew more often than less.
So your saying they should
So your saying they should raise the fees for EVERYTHING by 5 dollars and then give those of us who use the online services a 5 dollar discount?
Before today?
I'd have said no. Because not every service is available online and so something like my moped registration renewal which remains a counter-only service will charge me $5 more without an equivalent online option. I liked the fee arrangement for those things that are online and I think they should have offered a way for people who can't get online to use kiosks at the RMV to do the same transaction at the online rate.
After today's stupid finagling by the Governor? I say absolutely yes...and then I would require that *every* service have an online equivalent for the discount. Look, the RMV offices just aren't paying for themselves, so the price has to go up. It was a VERY FAIR assessment to apply the $5 charge to those things that people had ABSOLUTELY NO NEED to do in person...thus wasting the time of those people who couldn't do their transactions online (thus they weren't going to be charged the $5 extra) and causing extra work and frustration for the RMV workers.
The biggest problem was that they didn't get out in front of this "fee" and properly spin it as a discount for online transactions. If the line was "fees for certain services are going up...but do it online and we'll discount it at the old price" that would have played out a lot better than the
headline pornnews frenzy about how the RMV was going to start "ABUSING YOU WITH MOAR FEES!?!" that sent everyone into a tea-party-esque apoplexy, causing the Governor to wuss out and step in.So, now, the only answer is to push everything up and give a discount online. Support the ability of people to use an in-house system at the RMV office to obtain the discount. But I'm tired of waiting behind 100 people getting license renewals when I can't do my transaction online...just to get a ticket for the queue after 45 minutes and then only a 15 minute wait and being 6th in line for "registration renewal". That's just really stupid and wastes everyone's time.
Welcome to the year 2000...stuff gets done on computers now.
How does he not know these
How does he not know these things are happening. It just looks bad for departments within his administration to do things and for him to reprimand them.... its look sloppy and as if they don't have their @#$% together.