Department of Motor Vehicle Wait Line Data

Department of Motor Vehicle wait line data While waiting in line, I thought to myself that I should collect Queueing data. Heck, I have nothing better to do, so below is the data set I collected. Service Cycle # of # of Cycle # Start Time End Time Time Arrivals Departures 07-26-2012 09:03:54 07-26-2012 09:07:55 1 240.815754 7 1 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:07:55 07-26-2012 09:09:07 2 72.783765 1 1 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:09:07 07-26-2012 09:10:41 3 93.917907 2 1 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:10:41 07-26-2012 09:12:28 4 106.948664 0 2 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:12:28 07-26-2012 09:14:26 5 118.004521 0 2 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:14:26 07-26-2012 09:16:24 6 117.90553 1 4 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:16:24 07-26-2012 09:19:22 7 177.614429 1 2 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:19:22 07-26-2012 09:25:01 8 338.985608 1 1 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:27:16 07-26-2012 09:28:35 9 78.453296 2 1 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:28:35 07-26-2012 09:29:42 10 67.075174 0 1 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:29:42 07-26-2012 09:34:54 11 312.357674 6 1 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:34:54 07-26-2012 09:35:31 12 36.476468 0 2 AM AM 07-26-2012 09:35:31 07-26-2012 09:37:17 13 106.247341 0 1 AM AM Data Definition To do the above time study of waiting times at the DMV, I just used my iPhone clock and a pencil and paper. Really simple – boring – YES; but simple too. Here are the definitions of the above data values: 1. Start Time / End Time: This is the time from when a customer is called to the DMV officer to when the customer is complete with their transaction. This usually starts with “# xyz come to Desk abc” – at this point I’d start the timer. Then, when the customer leaves that desk, I end the time. 2. Cycle Time: This represents the Service Time in seconds, or the difference between Start Time and End Time. 3. # of Arrivals: This represents the number of customers who enter the DMV office and begin waiting at the back of the line. 4. # of Departures: This number represents the number of customers who exit the building after they have been served by the DMV officer. Notice that I did not time every single transaction – only the ones that I could. So, what is missing here are the simultaneous transactions. Because I only had 1 timer, I could only time 1 transaction at most. That is why there is a difference between # of Arrivals and # of Departures. After of about 17 minutes of waiting, I finally made it to the point in the line where I could get a number. Below is my Queue number. DMV Queueing Results For the 31 minutes I collected data, below are the key takeaways: DMV Waiting Line Key Takeaways (31 minutes) Average Service Time # of Arrivals # of Departures 143 Seconds Per Customer 9 Arrivals 11 Departures