As it was 3.30pm, there was no way most would be dealt with that day, but the uncaring AA staff let them stand, saying nothing.
I waited three days and returned. An identical lengthy queue confronted me. The AA are lessees in one of my buildings and so I had my staff monitor the situation. Their daily reports were always of lengthy queues before one assistant.
So I tried the Lower Hutt office, three times over a fortnight, there to find the same situation.
On the first visit I encountered a harridan staff member bullying an old lady in her 80s. She had entered half an hour earlier and stood behind the person being served in the driver's licence section. She pleaded in vain but the harridan was having none of it - get in behind the then 10 people waiting, she ordered, this in a queue facing a different section. It was vintage Soviet Union behaviour.
For a third time I tried last week. There must have been 20 people crammed in the small office. I edged in and asked a staff member when they open in the morning and whether there are always people waiting. "Only four or five," she said.
No business would last with that pre-1984 non-service, but it's a natural consequence of a monopoly. Today, top service is a prerequisite for commercial survival. Take department stores whose very survival is threatened. Britain's Marks and Spencer combat this with outstanding customer service and I was delighted for their sake to read of a profit boost in their latest accounts.
On the other hand, Australia's David Jones have tackled the problem by staff cuts. I once bet a Sydney staff member $100 he couldn't buy a pair of shoes inside an hour in David Jones. A bunch of us went along to watch the hilarious scene that ensued - and, predictably, I won the bet. They're doomed unless they wake up.
Or take the Irish discount airline Ryanair.
Its principal, Michael O'Leary, always openly laughed at the flood-tide of complaints, relying on low prices to keep them coming. Last year he was persuaded to try a decent service approach. Profits have lifted a third by the strategy, in his words, of "not pissing people off".
But back to the AA.
This licensing service should go to tender - retail chains, supermarket companies, the banks et al will all be in it.
My problem was solved when a friend mentioned that the AA wasn't the sole licensing authority, as widely believed, and vehicle testing stations were also empowered to issue licences.
I shot down to the Lower Hutt one. Not one but two charming young women leapt to it and had me relicensed in 10 minutes. They said 90 per cent of the people entering are absolutely furious, recounting similar frustrating AA stories.
If the Wellington region situation is the same nationwide, then the cost in lost time queuing is scandalous. If it's the AA's approach elsewhere, then the transport minister should cancel its licensing role.
The irony is that the AA is a service organisation and presumably does a good job with breakdowns, etc or they'd have disappeared. As a motorists' lobby they've also been invaluable in urging higher motorway speed limits plus ridiculing the Wellington City Council's ludicrous proposal of reducing speed limits in the city to 30km/h. Thus it's a pity they're spoiling their reputation with this non-service cost-cutting disgrace.
