Now a 7Investigates follow-up. We’ve reported on those painfully long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Some driving schools are reportedly booking scores of appointments and then selling them for profit. As Heather Walker reports, Miami-Dade officials are now considering a measure to put a stop to this.
You can book a free appointment for DMV of Miami-Dade County, but you have to book it months in advance because all the appointments are taken. Now, it appears some of those appointments are being booked and then sold by driving schools for hundreds of dollars.
Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez: “We have already discovered that more than 200 appointments, sometimes booked with the same phone number.”
A source tells us one driving school booked 70 appointments and believe it or not, those schools are not breaking the law.
Heather Walker: “How does that make you feel?”
Emma Saito: “Terrible. Terrible. So they’re making money and you’re here for days?”
We spoke to driving schools today. They all denied selling any appointments. The tax collector says other appointments are being sold by individuals.
Dariel Fernandez: “This company or these people, what they do is collapse the system.”
We shared the information with people waiting in line today.
Issach Francois: “I was just, you know, very shocked but not really shocked. It’s Miami.”
These long lines are outside of DMVs across Miami Dade. Some people here that we spoke to say they’ve been waiting for seven, eight hours to get in. Others have had to leave and come back multiple times without any success.
Issach Francois: “I already got like a ticket that I had got from another county for my, you know, expired license.”
Issach Francois has missed school trying to renew his license.
Issach Francois: “I think there needs to be a legislative issue or some type of, you know, verification in order to prevent things like that from happening.”
Tuesday, an ordinance was introduced to create penalties for what the county is calling reservation scalping. If passed, it would create a $500 civil penalty and possible time behind bars.
Dariel Fernandez: “I’m not going to allow anybody to (be) charged for appointment to any resident.”
The soonest the ordinance will go into effect is next month. It’s part of the tax collector’s ongoing effort to reduce wait times at DMV offices.
Heather Walker, 7News.
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