A scheduled trip to renew your driver’s license in South Florida is so highly sought after that you’d assumed Taylor Swift was performing live. The Miami-Dade County Tax Collector’s Office announced on Monday that it uncovered a network of scalpers who hoarded free DMV appointments and resold them for up to $250. While the office is taking steps to stomp out the exploitative practice, going to the DMV has become such a torturous experience that drivers were willing to shell out to avoid it in the first place.
Scalpers amassed appointments using bots and fake accounts to exploit an online system. The Tax Collector’s Office spotted 200 suspicious appointments in the first three weeks after opening a new downtown Miami location for driver’s license services, the Miami Herald reports. The agency has its sights set on individuals who are part of local driving schools as suspects in strangling the DMV’s system. Miami-Dade County Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez said in a release:
“We know who they are and how they operate. We will not accept any appointment obtained through system abuse. Our office is committed to ensuring that all residents have fair and equal access to services without interference from those seeking to exploit the system.”
Selling DMV appointments could become illegal
Local drivers were only pushed to buy appointments because the standard DMV experience had become absolutely unbearable. According to WTVJ, people could be subjected to a multi-day ordeal just to renew their license. One woman spoke about how her husband arrived at 9 a.m. to renew his hazmat license, but he was turned away at 1 p.m. as the staff was inundated with people seeking services.
The current rhetoric around government bureaucracy seeks to overlook when necessary services are overlooked or mismanaged. The conditions in South Flordia are reminiscent of DPS appointments in Texas in 2021. With months-long waits for online appointments, Texans were camping out in front of offices for a chance at a same-day appointment to renew their driver’s license. At two separate locations, at least 100 people were in line, with only 25 same-day bookings up for offer.
The efforts to weed out scalped appointments could make selling booking a criminal offense. Miami-Dade’s county commissioner introduced legislation to make selling DMV appointments illegal, with a potential fine of $500. This also coincides with the county’s tax collector office taking control of the DMV from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. New management is opening new locations and extending office hours to deal with the overwhelming demand.