What to Know
- YoGov is a startup that will wait in line for you at the DMV
- The "line waiting concierge" service costs about $25 an hour
- YoGov also helps with road tests and finding open appointments
It's an activity many wouldn't wish on even their worst enemies: spending hours or even days waiting in line at the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Now, Oakland-based startup YoGov is offering a solution: a "concierge" who will wait in line for you.
"Government inefficiency has been around for thousands of years," said YoGov's CEO and founder, Ryder Pearce.
Pearce says he started the company after his own trip to the DMV led to confusion, frustration, and ultimately a second visit to finish what he couldn't the first time. The company began as a website offering tips and assistance navigating the state's dizzying bureaucracy of vehicles and driver's licenses.[[491068431, C]]
But Pearce said YoGov hit a turning point when he met an international student at UC Berkeley who needed to borrow a car for his road test. It's a Catch-22, Pearce said: road test applicants need a licensed driver with a vehicle — not a rental car — to come with them to the DMV. YoGov (short for "Your Government Services") began offering licensed drivers with their own vehicles a chance to help road test applicants in exchange for an hourly fee.
Then came the Federal government's Real ID program, and its 2020 deadline.
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"We've seen how bad the DMV lines have gotten these past several months in California," Pearce said.
Like any good entrepreneur, he saw a business opportunity: A "concierge" who will wait in line for you, in exchange for an hourly wage.
We took YoGov's new DMV "line waiting concierge" service for a test drive. Watch the video above to see how it worked.
