The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission is Run by Idiots
So I went online today to renew my vehicle registration. It took only 2 or 3 minutes to fill out the requested info and pay the $39.50 registration fee plus a convenience fee of $2.00 for paying with a credit card.
Before 2003, the former New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles was perhaps the worst run service in the country. After it was reorganized as the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, customer service improved greatly.
However, I do have one complaint: the convenience fee of $2.00 for paying with a credit card. Are the Commissioners complete idiots? Why would any business want to penalize and throttle online activity? The cost to the agency for processing vehicle registration renewals online is practically nil. The cost for a customer service employee to process such a renewal is more than $3.00.
If I were running the Commission, I would give online people a two buck discount while charging all other non-online activities a penalty fee of two bucks. Why?
Consider the following: The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission has 2,400 employees and an annual budget of $409.4 million.
Online processing could greatly and with almost no effort both reduce the number of employees and the annual expenses.
Who appoints these idiots?
In a related matter, I heard recently about a municipal parking authority that is considering not offering the option to pay for parking with a credit card because the parking commissioners do not want to pay the credit card processor a 19 cent fee per transaction.
The evidence is more than overwhelming that parking meters that accept credit cards generate more revenues than cash-only meters even after processing fees are taken into account.
Who appoints these idiots?
