PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. \u2014 The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says its driver\u2019s license offices in Broward County are operating more efficiently than ever. <\/p>\n
But customers standing in long lines \u2015 sometimes for hours \u2015 and several state lawmakers are challenging that claim.<\/p>\n
FLHSMV Deputy Executive Director Robert Kynoch recently told legislators that wait times at Broward driver\u2019s license offices are now \u201c20 minutes or less.\u201d<\/p>\n
The findings were discussed at a Transportation & Economic Development Budget Subcommittee meeting in Tallahassee. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of customers are being served in 20 minutes or less,\u201d Kynoch said, adding that in the videos, photos and social media posts he sees, \u201cit\u2019s very positive of where we are today.\u201d<\/p>\n
He even cited a 98% customer approval rating.<\/p>\n
But that optimism was met with disbelief in Tallahassee, where lawmakers said the numbers don\u2019t match what they\u2019re hearing from constituents.<\/p>\n
Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, said the agency has been \u201cplaying catch-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had seniors passing out in line to get a driver\u2019s license,\u201d Daley said. \u201cIt\u2019s a basic function and the agency has not been able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawmakers also raised concerns about the state\u2019s appointment system, intended to keep people from waiting outside for hours, saying it remains unreliable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe portal is a disaster, by the way,\u201d Daley said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it firsthand. My own family cannot seem to get into the damn thing. So you serve 7,000 people a day, but how many people aren\u2019t able to get access and have to go to an office?\u201d<\/p>\n
Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Shoaf, R-Port St. Joe, questioned the agency\u2019s method for calculating its wait-time averages. <\/p>\n
Kynoch confirmed that the clock starts only after a customer receives a number inside the building, not during the often-lengthy wait outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe those stats are very misleading for the people who are standing outside and waiting,\u201d Shoaf said. \u201cIt\u2019s not counting at all until they get in.\u201d<\/p>\n
State wait time data, Broward and Miami-Dade counties:<\/p>\n
Performance Metric
\n June 2025
\n July 2025
\n Aug 2025
\n Sept 2025
\n Oct 2025<\/p>\n
# Offices
\n 9
\n 8
\n 8
\n 8
\n 7<\/p>\n
# Transactions
\n 82,339
\n 94,708
\n 98,336
\n 93,140
\n 79,974<\/p>\n
% Served in 30 min. or less
\n 67.35%
\n 66.96%
\n 73.12%
\n 77.90%
\n 86.23%<\/p>\n
% customers satisfied
\n 97.41%
\n 97.36%
\n 98.22%
\n 98.06%
\n 98.42%<\/p>\n
Source: FLHSMV presentation<\/p>\n
Daley was even more blunt as frustrations mounted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou all have one job \u2015 one job,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd your responsibilities have decreased. Yet we continue to have issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pembroke Pines office is located at 8001 Pembroke Road. On Tuesday morning, the lines weren\u2019t as long, but there was still a wait. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me about 45 minutes to get where I am now.\u201d said Jimmy DiBiassi. <\/p>\n
DiBiassi was sitting outside. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an hour and a half, two hours.\u201d said Huguette Rousseau, who was waiting in her car until she was called in.<\/p>\n
State officials acknowledged a staffing shortage but said they have logged 30,000 hours of overtime, deployed mobile units and extended hours to help.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Florida\u2019s driver\u2019s license system is undergoing a major transition from state to county-run. <\/p>\n
Kynoch told lawmakers that Miami-Dade County has already taken over eight of nine state-run offices, with the final location scheduled to transfer next month. The county has opened two new facilities and plans to operate 14 in total.<\/p>\n
Kynoch said Broward County is further behind. The state still runs all five existing offices. Broward will not take over those buildings; instead, it is starting from scratch and plans to open 10 county-run offices by June 2027. Until then, the state remains in control.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of today, we are doing as well in those counties as we have (at) any point in my 10-year career,\u201d Kynoch said.<\/p>\n
The DHSMV did get a one-time $3 million boost to address the long wait times. <\/p>\n
Officials say they are able to serve everyone who shows up and no longer have to turn people away.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. \u2014 The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says its driver\u2019s license offices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-60843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}