California DMV will expand Saturday hours to trim interminable waits

A line for the State Department of Motor Vehicles in July 2018 in San Francisco, Calif. As lines at the DMV are getting longer and appointments harder to schedule, Gov. Gavin Newsom has tackled the agency's problems with a new "strike force" and new director. less A line for the State Department of Motor Vehicles in July 2018 in San Francisco, Calif. As lines at the DMV are getting longer and appointments harder to schedule, Gov. Gavin Newsom has tackled the agency's ... more Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close California DMV will expand Saturday hours to trim interminable waits 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is expanding Saturday service to alleviate long wait times for driver’s licenses and other services at its field offices.

Starting Aug. 4, 60 offices will open every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the DMV announced Friday.

In June, the DMV began offering limited Saturday service to cut down on growing delays caused by the installation of a new queuing system and the debut of Real ID, a new type of optional driver’s license and identification card with enhanced identity features.

Starting in October 2020, state-issued driver’s licenses without the enhanced features will not be accepted for entry onto domestic plane flights or federal facilities that require identification. People will still be able to use limited other forms of ID, such as passports, to gain entry if they don’t have Real ID.

Today there are 43 offices open the first and third Saturday of each month from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. In the Bay Area, these offices include Concord, Fairfield, Hayward, Novato, Oakland (Claremont Avenue), Pleasanton, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Jose Driver License Processing Center (driver license/ID card only), Santa Clara and Santa Rosa.

On Aug. 4, these and 17 more offices will be open every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The new Saturday offices in the Bay Area are Daly City, El Cerrito, Vallejo and the Santa Teresa branch in San Jose. In the first half of June, wait times in Daly City and El Cerrito were among the longest in the Bay Area.

Customers can make appointments now for the new Saturday hours, but they are likely to fill up fast. Behind-the-wheel exams are not available on Saturdays.

The average wait time without an appointment for all services at 27 Bay Area DMV offices was an hour and 43 minutes in the first half of June, up dramatically from 47 minutes the same time last year. But that’s only the time it takes from “the moment a customer is issued a queue ticket until they are called to a window to begin their transaction,” said DMV spokesman Marty Greenstein. People could be in line “for hours” before they get the queue ticket, he added.

Areeta Wong, 17, arrived at the Daly City DMV office at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to get her learner’s permit. (The earliest appointment she could get was Aug. 29). She got her ticket at 1:32 p.m.

At 4:35 p.m., her number still had not been called. When she finally got to the window, she was told it was too late to take a test that day and she should come back the next day at 6:15 a.m.

“I was disappointed, but this is the DMV,” Wong said. Her mom, who took the day off work to accompany her, was less understanding.

Beginning Monday, July 16, the DMV will also open 14 field offices one hour earlier, at 7 a.m. four days a week. Those offices will continue to open at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays and close at 5 p.m. daily. In the Bay Area they include Oakland-Claremont and the San Jose Driver License Processing Center.

The standard hours for other DMV offices are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays except Wednesdays when they open at 9 a.m.

For information on ways to beat the wait, see my column in this Sunday’s paper.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender