Frustration Again As Toms River, Lakewood MVC Offices Shut Lines

TOMS RIVER, NJ — After waiting more than seven hours on Tuesday at the Toms River office of the New Jersey Motor Vehicles Commission in hopes of getting his driver's license, Andrew Bayles was turned away.

So on Wednesday he got in line extra early, at 4:30 a.m., in hopes of finally getting his driver's license.

Bayles turned 17 on March 27 — just 12 days after the state's motor vehicle offices shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, the state's motor vehicles offices opened to long lines and frustrated residents as people tried to get licenses and registrations after nearly four months in limbo.

On Tuesday, Sue Fulton, chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, acknowledged the issues and said the commission had sent extra management staff to the busiest agencies at 6 a.m.

"While we understand the frustration of our customers in this extremely challenging and difficult time, our employees are doing the best they can to keep everyone safe and work as efficiently as possible," Fulton said.

She urged residents to check the motor vehicles website, NJMVC.gov, before going to an office, because some people were waiting in line for transactions that are only being accepted online.

For people like Bayles, of Toms River, waiting in line to get his driver's license was the only option. While for some 17-year-olds getting a driver's license is a chance to have some independence, for Bayles it's more than that.

"He's an essential worker," his mother, Jennifer Duvelsdorf, said. Bayles works at Shore Point Marina in Toms River, which services boats including local law enforcement. Duvelsdorf, meanwhile, is a nurse, and has been working overnights and weekends during the pandemic. It meant arranging rides so he could get to work while she wasn't home to drive him.

"It's been so bad not being able to drive myself," Bayles said.

Bayles was given a priority letter to reschedule his road test, which he passed. (The state reopened road testing on June 29.) But that letter didn't extend to getting the license itself. And though they arrived Tuesday in Toms River and got in line at 6 a.m., it was a mess.

"They shouldn't have just let everyone go in a free-for-all," she said. "They should have given priority to the March and April birthdays."

On Wednesday, Bayles was in line early enough to get a number for service from the motor vehicles office staff. But the Toms River office stopped accepting customers at 10 a.m., Toms River police said in a tweet. The Lakewood office, which is processing only registration paperwork, stopped accepting customers at 7 a.m., Lakewood police said.

"We got there (in Toms River) at 6:50 a.m. for the 8 a.m. opening," said Karen Brown of Bayville, whose son Rickey turned 17 on April 11. He received a priority letter for taking his road test, but ended up having to take it in Westfield, at one of the temporary road test locations set up because of the backlog of tests.

"The line was wrapped around the strip mall, around the gas station further in the parking lot and into the Surf Taco parking lot. We were literally sitting on the sidewalk at Hooper Avenue," she said.

Brown said they were told just before 9 a.m. by motor vehicles staff that state officials were allowing them to process a certain number of licenses each day, and that Rickey had missed the cutoff on Wednesday.

"NJ opened extra testing centers to process the backlog of driver's tests. Didn't they realize that they had to serve all of the people that were not served during the shut down AND all of these new licenses?" she said.

Duvelsdorf said her son received a priority letter as well, but that only applied to the road test.

"They needed to go by birthday, not this waiting on line at midnight at the MVC," she said. "Shame (on the state). How could you do this to these kids?"

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