7 On Your Side offers tips, tricks to waiting less at DMV

CONCORD, Calif. (KGO) -- Getting a driver's license at the DMV can take up a good portion of your day, but there are tricks to easing the wait.

Waiting in line at the DMV is time consuming, but what if there was a way to cut down on the waiting or even eliminate it without needing an appointment?

The DMV is famous for its long lines and long waits.

Even if you book an appointment in advance, once at the office there can be more waiting.

"When I came in I mentally prepared myself to wait about 45 minutes or so because my previous experience with these guys," Yossi Ben-Nun said.

But there is another way. "Well like I said most of the time I'm in and out in 15 to 20 minutes," Charles Williams said.

You can, too. The DMV keeps track of wait times at each office. Then, the DMV posts it online and in real time.

If you have an appointment at the Concord office there is no wait and if you don't have an appointment it is just 11 minutes.

But is the website accurate? Does the DMV keep good time?

Michael Finney checked the Concord wait time a couple weeks back and it was 26 minutes.

When he arrived at the office the wait had jumped to an hour. It took a while to get to the appointment desk.

By then the wait time was an hour and a half.

He waited and that was exactly how long it took to be called to the service desk.

The DMV declined an on-camera interview but did issue a statement saying: "The wait time posted for each office is merely an estimate, reflecting an average of the longest wait times for driver license and vehicle registration customers at that particular field office; actual wait times will vary."

So the wait time is from the check-in desk. There is one hack many don't know, just look at the website. You can actually shop for wait times between offices.

When the wait time was 11 minutes at Concord, some poor sap was down at the Walnut Creek office waiting for an hour and 18 minutes. Someone else was waiting an hour plus in Pittsburg.

The wait time was 17 minutes in Vallejo and in Oakland it was 19 minutes.

Wait times are on the decline since January when the new law went into effect allowing undocumented immigrants to get California driver's licenses. On average, overall wait times have decreased by 28 percent from January to April in the Bay Area.