One woman said she’d made the line two other times to no avail, even after a four-hour wait. She hoped for better luck on Wednesday. NBC6’s Julia Bagg reports.
Making your next appointment at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Miami-Dade may have just gotten a little bit easier.
Miami-Dade commissioners passed legislation on Tuesday to try to stop scalpers from obtaining Department of Motor Vehicle appointments, and NBC6 took to the DMV early Wednesday to see the long line for ourselves.
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WATCH HEREAt the office on Northwest 37th Avenue and Northwest 7th Street by Magic City Casino, one woman said she'd been in line since Tuesday evening. When NBC6 news crews try to book an appointment ourselves, the first appointment available isn't until the end of May.
The cause? County leaders say it's scalpers, who book all the appointments for free and then sell them for anywhere between $25 and $250.
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The county's tax collector, Dariel Fernandez, who is in charge of the DMV, said last month that the county had uncovered a network of scalpers that have been hoarding appointments by using fake accounts and bots.
Majd Yahya is a resident physician who lined up to get her driver's license Wednesday--hoping the third time would be the charm.
"Honestly this is ridiculous, I'm here in line before 4:30," she said. "For 4 and a half hours. [The other times] I couldn't get in, because when it turns like 9 or 9:30, they stop taking walk-ins and I have to go to work."
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So she showed up early on her day off.
"With my work it's not very flexible so when I have the time off, whenever like, months ahead, I still can't get an appointment," she said.
But officials are now cracking down on the illegal practice behind the large wait times and long lines at DMV offices in recent years.
Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera said Tuesday that the ordinance was unanimously approved to target the illegal resale of the appointments with fines of up to $500 for each violation.
"This legislation is about protecting working families and restoring trust in our public institutions," Cabrera said in a statement. "No one should have to pay a third party just to access basic government services. I’m proud to have partnered with Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez to put an end to this abusive practice."
The ordinance prohibits any person, entity, or platform from listing, selling, or promoting the sale of public service appointments without express written consent from the Miami-Dade County Office of the Tax Collector.
"We will no longer tolerate fraud in our community. These predatory practices are unfair, unethical, and disproportionately harm our most vulnerable residents," Fernandez said in a statement. “Thanks to Commissioner Cabrera’s leadership and the unanimous support of the Board of County Commissioners, we now have the legal tools to go after bad actors who have taken advantage of our residents for far too long."
As for Yahya, luckily, she won't need an appointment for a while. Some 5 hours after her arrival, she left with her brand new license.
