Demanding Answers: Customers Frustrated By Frequent Long Lines Outside NJ Motor Vehicle Agencies

LODI, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Long lines have been wrapping around motor vehicle agencies in Lodi and Rahway, forcing customers to stand on sidewalks for hours in the heat -- some never made it inside, where lines are just as long.

As CBS2's Christine Sloan reported, drivers say it's happening all the time.

"Came back Thursday, 4 o'clock, they close at 5:30 and same thing," said one man who was on his third trip to the Rahway agency in a week.

CBS2's Sloan reached out to the motor vehicle commission. A spokesperson declined an on-camera interview, and said the lines are long because it's the first of the month and it's busy.

The spokesperson said driver's licenses expire at the beginning or end of the month and that people are waiting until the last minute to renew.

The agency is also updating its antiquated 30-year-old computer system.

"I think it's a bunch of excuses," Michael Farris said.

Rahway's mayor -- once a manager at the motor vehicle agency in town -- blamed it on split shifts.

"When you come here on Saturday, or following Monday, or late night they don't have full staffing levels," Mayor Samson Steinman (D) said.

The commission has been upgrading its computer system since 2008. They hit a roadblock in 2014 when a provider couldn't meet a federally mandated program deadline.

Their own IT department stepped in, but drivers want the governor to take charge.

"Tell Christie to stop joy riding across the states and handle something in new Jersey for once," Harry Jean said.

The MVC told drivers to renew licenses early, register vehicles online, and take advantage of the 'skip the trip' program that allows for license renewal by mail. There was no indication as to when the computer system will be fully upgraded.