‘It’s a race.’ What Modesto parents are doing to get their kids DMV driving tests
Some Modesto parents are going the distance — literally — to get driver’s licenses for their teens. Unable to schedule timely behind-the-wheel driving tests through the Department of Motor Vehicles’ online appointment system in Modesto or at offices in nearby cities, they’ve gone to places including Merced, Mariposa and Clovis.
“It’s a race,” Anne Wolfley said of her frustration in trying to book an appointment for daughter Fallon, a Gregori High sophomore who turns 16 on April 6.
Knowing the DMV books appointments three months out, Wolfley jumped on the scheduling page first thing in the morning on the date exactly three months before her daughter’s birthday. Finding nothing available in Modesto and Manteca, she punched in cities until she found a Merced spot open April 8.
“And mind you, I was probably the first person looking that day,” Wolfley said. “... The minute a day opens up, it gets booked immediately. And I was looking for times after school so Fallon didn’t have to miss class.”
Checking early and often is the way to go, because appointments do go fast, and they open up when people cancel or reschedule. One day last week, a test by The Bee to schedule a test found no dates available in Modesto, Turlock, Manteca, Sonora, Tracy, Stockton, Lodi, Sacramento and south Sacramento. Merced had a May 28 spot, Fresno March 24, Madera April 30 and Los Banos May 11. A different day of the week, a Modesto date popped up but was taken within 10 minutes.
Tuesday, the scheduling system had many more slots open: Modesto, June 8; Turlock, May 12; Sonora, May 26; Mariposa, April 23; Los Banos, May 14; Sacramento, May 8; south Sacramento, June 5; and Fresno, April 13. Offices in two cities had earlier dates than what was available last week: Merced, May 18; and Madera, April 20. And Tracy, Stockton and Manteca still had no appointments available.
The situation is not unusual, DMV spokesman Nicholas Filipas said via email. “They do fill quickly. ... Various factors affect availability, including, but not limited to: resources, increase in demand, and customers booking duplicate appointments.”
Wolfley, an attorney and single mom, and her daughter both have busy schedules. There’s always a school sport: Tennis season rolls into soccer season, and soccer into track. Then there’s Science Olympiad, Mock Trial, student leadership, study groups and more.
She really didn’t “have the luxury” of a trip to Merced for the driving test, Wolfley said, “but I needed her to have her license five years ago,” she joked. “I was like, ‘You will take your test on your 16th birthday.’ I would drive to the Oregon border to get her license.”
After having to cancel a Modesto appointment, the dad of one friend of Fallon’s found the next available one in Mariposa.
John Leal has twin daughters, Nina and Emily. Like Wolfley, he got on the DMV scheduler about three months in advance of their November birthday, but he was able to get Modesto appointments with relative ease.
A conflict with a school play, however, forced Emily to reschedule her test. Her dad got on the job right away, and revisited the site daily — sometimes twice a day — plugging in various DMV office sites to get an earlier date. That resulted in Emily taking her test in Mariposa.
In a phone conversation with a Bee reporter and parent, an employee of the Code 4 Driving School in Modesto cautioned against taking a behind-the-wheel test in an unfamiliar community because young drivers may tend to get nervous and are more likely to fail.
Emily wasn’t anxious and did fine, though, her dad said. The driving test route had been posted online, so she gave it a practice run. “It was all right there in town, and not very hilly,” Leal said.
A Modesto mom who asked that her name not be used in this story said she, too, had heard that out-of-town testing often resulted in failure. But her Beyer High sophomore daughter was eager to get her license right after her February birthday, and Clovis looked to be her only option. “Nobody had any dates close. I was being pushed out to April and May.”
So off they went to Fresno County for the newly turned 16-year-old’s Feb. 19 appointment. “She drove around a little (prior to the test) and she passed no problem,” her mom said.
She mentioned to a DMV employee in Clovis her difficulty in scheduling a test, and he said the backlog is in part due to the influx of customers applying for REAL ID cards. According to the California DMV website, REAL ID is a driver’s license or identification card “that also is a federally accepted form of identification. It can be used to board a domestic flight within the U.S. and enter secure federal facilities, such as military bases, federal courthouses, and other secure federal locations.”
The Modesto mom said she was told at the Clovis office that to accommodate the demand, behind-the-wheel testers were doing less of that to work behind the counter.
Asked if that’s the case statewide, DMV spokesman Filipas said only, “With the REAL ID enforcement date of October 2020 fast approaching, the DMV is using its resources in the most efficient way possible to accommodate all our customers.”
As the Modesto parents — and anyone who uses the online scheduling system — learned, applicants can visit any office to take a behind-the-wheel test, Filipas said, but you can’t visit an office to schedule it. An appointment must be made in advance via the Internet or by calling 1-800-777-0133, he said.
