Talk With Tracy: This Is Where We Are All The Same

Every time I need to get my license renewed, I seem to get there on my birthday. It used to be because I took off from work, and now I can usually get a babysitter without the guilt. This year I was not looking forward to the day, the NJ DMV has been under scrutiny again and has been receiving a lot of negative press. I left late and got to the North Bergen DMV after 9AM. I walked in and was startled by a man in a long sleeve dress shirt and tie. He asked me what I was there for and politely instructed me to sit next to a lady in pink. I was not completely sure what was going on, but sitting there watching the DMV greeter became a source of amusement for me. As all different types of people came in he would assign seats, keep the lines moving, get whatever paper form you might need, pens; He would even throw in a literary quip every once and a while that was met with smiles and lightened the air with all the customers. He sent the "I am here with her" people outside to wait. This made me chuckle because now I know the crowd outside are not customers but the tag-alongs. We were the license renewal crowd, but if you were there for car registration or something else, you were sent to the reception desk to a lady with a great smile.

So there we all sat, a mix of people renewing our licenses, representative of the area. There were Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians old and young, English speakers and non-English speakers, beautiful people and not so beautiful people, characters and the ordinary. As different as we were, we were all the same at the DMV. There is no gender, class, ethnicity or economic difference between patrons of the DMV; we all sit and wait. The worn out hippie, brushing his long, wavy salt and pepper locks with his eyes closed was the same as the pretty, blonde princess who came in with a sense of entitlement bigger than the value of the rock on her finger; the DMV greeter treated them equally, spoke to each of us with respect, and kept the lines moving.  I had some solace in the fact that we were all the same there, and all respected.

I expected to be at the DMV for hours and hours, but the lines kept moving. The people behind the desks were efficient and polite. Even a few times, I observed patrons getting frustrated because they did not have proper documentation, but the employee was able to diffuse the customer and send them on their way. The employees were doing their jobs, moving quickly and getting us in and out. I appreciated that, there is no more confusion and chaos trying to figure out where the line is for what, where to get the paperwork or trying to navigate around parties of people who came with the one person who needed something. The facility was also much cleaner than how I remembered it. This is now a systematic, effective means of getting a crowd to move along and getting each person what they are looking for.

It took less than 90 minutes for me to renew my license. On the way out I stopped the DMV greeter and asked what his name was, told him that I thought he did his job very well, and, of course, asked if he was hot in his shirt and tie. His name was Robert, and with rare humbleness, he also said, "don’t forget this lady," pointing to the reception desk where the lady with the great smile sat. Her name was Joanne. I said I did notice her too. So, to all the employees at the North Bergen DMV and especially Robert, the very charming DMV greeter and Joanne, the receptionist with a great smile , I thank you. You do a wonderful job, and please know, there are people out here who are grateful for your kindness and efforts!