Head of DDS apologizes for long lines

ATLANTA — The head of Georgia's Department of Driver Services apologized as thousands lined up across the state -- some in hot, steamy parking lots -- to get their licenses renewed.

Wait times were reported to be over four hours in some locations on Friday as state officials scrambled to resolve a process that did not appear to be getting better.

"It's ridiculous in there. It's too long," one driver told Channel 2's Lori Geary.

"It's packed. Too much going on in there," another woman said.

Geary spoke with Commissioner Greg Dozier about how his office has handled new rules that require an additional half-million people to personally visit one of 64 centers across the state.

"First, my apologies. The wait time is not acceptable today," Dozier said.

"Do you feel as though you prepared enough for this?" Geary asked. 

"We did a ton of preparation for it," Dozier said. 

Dozier said his department was allowed to hire 22 people and 95 temporary workers, despite a slim state budget, but added he's assessing if that total is enough.

"Where we're seeing the time increase and seeing the day balloon as you move past noon is a result of communication. A customer comes up and they have questions.  We're looking at the documents, we have questions," Dozier said.

Department officials are working on one solution that would allow people to send in a form of identification if a driver forgets to bring it to the office.

They are also contemplating accepting a form or pay stub with the last four digits of a Social Security number if someone does not have their original card.

"The wait times are not where we want them to be. We are bound and determined that we're going to solve that and get it back to a more reasonable time," Dozier said.

WSBTV