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Did you know that the average American spends roughly 37 billion hours waiting in line? Even more staggering, we do so voluntarily.
Sometimes this is unavoidable, like going to the grocery store or filling up your gas tank, but other times you can avoid lines altogether, like when renewing your license.
You may not have thought about it before, but we spend a quite a bit of time at the DMV throughout our lives. Here’s an estimated amount of time spent renewing a license and how you can speed that process up.
How many times will you have to renew your driver’s license?
In the U.S., the average life expectancy is 78 years. So if the average driving age is 18 years old, and you have to renew your license every four years, then you’re going to have to renew your driver’s license 15 times on average.
Even if you reside in a state where you can obtain your license at 16 years old, this would still come out to 15.5, so it’s pretty much the same number of actual renewals.
But that’s if you don’t move or lose your license in the meantime.
Your driver’s license is one of the most misplaced or lost items. In fact, 18.9% of people surveyed by Pixie, a location app for iPhones, stated that they spend more than fifteen minutes per day trying to find their driver’s license. If it’s gone for good, then that requires an unexpected trip to the DMV.
Additionally, FiveThirtyEight has found that the typical American will move 11.7 times in their life. When you move to a new address, particularly if it’s to a different state, then you’ll have yet another trip to the DMV.
The time spent preparing for your visit to the DMV
Regardless of whether you make the average 15 visits to your local DMV branch, or more because you lost your license or moved, how much time will you spend preparing the proper paperwork, commuting to the DMV, and waiting in line?
Before you leave your home, you need to make sure that you have following documents in order to renew your driver’s license:
- Your current driver’s license. In some states this is the only form of identification required, as long as the license has not been expired for an extended period of time. In Ohio, for example, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) will accept driver’s licenses that have been expired no more than six months.
- Your full legal name. Depending on the state you reside in, you may need to provide either one or two forms.
- Your Social Security number. What if you’re not eligible for a Social Security Number? Then you must provide proper proof of this, such as a letter issued by the Social Security Administration.
- Proof of legal presence, identity, and date of birth. Your birth certificate and/or passport should suffice.
- Proof of residency. This is proof of a physical address. PO (post office) boxes are not recognized. Examples include a utility bill or bank statement.
- Proof of a name change (if applicable).
Keep in mind that all of these documents must be original or certified as most DMVs will not accept copies.
To ensure that you have all proper documents, please visit your state’s DMV website. The last thing that you want is to arrive at the DMV, be told you don’t have the right paperwork, and have to go home and return.
If not organized, you could end up spending several hours searching for and collecting these documents. To save time, keep all vital documents in one secure location (like a safe) so that they are not only easily located, but also protected from flood or fire damage.
NOTE: If your license is expired, your state’s DMV may require you to take another knowledge and a road test, which may take around 20-30 minutes. If this is the case, then you may want to take a driver’s license practice test to prepare.
Once you have your paperwork in order, there’s also the time spent driving to the DMV — we already spend 17,000 minutes each year driving — as well as how long you’ll actually be at your local branch. We previously found in a study that the average American will wait 44 minutes before receiving service at the DMV, while the average wait time for a given state is 34 minutes.
Of course, there are numerous variables here, like which state you live in and how far you are from your local DMV branch, but let’s say that you spend an hour preparing your paperwork, 20 minutes driving to the DMV, and 40 minutes waiting to renew your license. That’s 2 hours per visit. If you do that 15 times, you’re looking at 30 hours (or one day and six hours of your life) just to renew your license.
How to spend less time in your life renewing your driver’s license
Thankfully, there are ways to spend less time renewing your license.
Again, visit your state’s DMV website so that you can review the full list of requirements for driver’s license renewal. This way you can be in and out because you have all relevant documents. As an added bonus, because you know which documents you’ll need in the future, you can keep them together in one location so that they can be easily accessed.
Also, be aware of the best times to visit your local DMV branch. Typically, the DMV is not busy mid-mornings on a Wednesday or Thursday in the middle of the month. That’s because most people visit the DMV at the last minute to renew their licenses and go either before work or during their lunch breaks.
States like California, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, Tennessee, and West Virginia now allow residents to renew their license at a kiosk, which takes just about five minutes. Other states allow residents to renew their license at AAA, even if they’re not a member.
But you may be able to completely skip this trip. Most states allow you to renew your license by mail or now through online driver’s license renewal. The license renewal reminder you receive in the mail or your state’s DMV website will tell whether or not this is an option.
