Long waits drive Rocklinites to Auburn DMV

State furloughs on the first and third Fridays have not affected wait times significantly at the Auburn Department of Motor Vehicles on Nevada Street. In fact, residents from other areas prefer wait times at the Auburn DMV.Jerry Fratcher of Citrus Heights drove to Auburn Tuesday to get a new license plate sticker for his motorcycle, because he could not do it online and he did not want to wait in line more than an hour at Rocklin's DMV."I drove up here because it's crazy in Rocklin," Fratcher said. "There were people down there fighting for parking spots, so I just drove up here."Robert Jacques is another Rocklin resident who drove to Auburn to avoid long lines at the Rocklin DMV."It's at least an hour and a half wait in Rocklin," Jacques said Tuesday, as he sat in a plastic chair at Auburn's DMV. It was horrible there today at 10:30 a.m."Jan Mendoza, spokesman for the state DMV headquarters in Sacramento, said that wait time in Auburn had gone up about 10 minutes since the furlough orders."It's about a 34-minute wait in the Auburn office," Mendoza said. "We are advising people to make an appointment."On Tuesday morning, DMV customers in Auburn were waiting about 15 to 30 minutes before their transactions were processed."Auburn's pretty quick but their new automated system has made it faster," Jacques said.Jacques lives right around the corner from the DMV in Rocklin, but does not like the long lines there.Furloughs at DMV not only mean longer waits for customers, for the nine remaining employees at the Auburn office, it means a pay cut."It's almost a 10 percent cut in pay for nine employees," Mendoza said.Staffing at the Auburn DMV is expected to stay the same, according to Mendoza."Everything is staying the same in Auburn," Mendoza said. "There are no plans to change anything. We just opened a new facility in Rocklin last summer."Mendoza reminds DMV customers that they can take care of some transactions online on the computer. Residents can renew registration, driver's license, change of address, notice of release of liability and vehicle transfer forms can all be filed online. Even a personalized license plate can be ordered online._______________________DMV online facts 2008Vehicle online registrations – 5,577,328Driver license renewals online – 486,532Total number of licensed drivers – 23.6 million