Last Monday afternoon I made the mistake of taking my car to the Deptford (NJ) Inspection Station for my car’s biannual inspection. I arrived at the inspection station at 2:45, later than I had hoped. As only about 25 cars were ahead of me, I figured that I’d be done in about an hour.

According to the state website, on weekdays the station’s hours were 7:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. However, for the first 25 minutes, none of the cars in front of me moved. It was as if all the station’s inspectors had gone on break. Once the line began moving, each time it moved, I’d advance several car lengths and then sit and wait another 15 minutes.

When I finally reached the front of the line, I noticed that only two of the four inspection lanes were open, which partially explained why it took so long for me to reach the front position. Another was that the station seemed understaffed. Did the station’s management not anticipate that so many cars would appear on a Monday afternoon?

At five minutes before five o’clock, an inspector placed a new sticker on my car. Unfortunately, it took more than two hours to get it.

From now on, I’ll get to the station early in the morning. When I’ve done that in the past, I’ve never had to wait more than an hour to get my car inspected.