Vehicle registration in Frankfurt: Waiting time of up to one month for private individuals!

Vehicle registration in Frankfurt: Waiting time of up to one month for private individuals!

The situation in Frankfurt's vehicle registration office is currently causing great discontent. Waiting times have increased to up to four weeks, especially for private individuals, while commercial applicants such as car dealers usually receive an appointment after around ten days. This reports fr.de. The city recognizes the problems and explains that a system change and staff absences are exacerbating the situation.

Car dealers are particularly frustrated as they face financial losses due to these delays. “We have to put off customers and have already contacted the mayor about the massive problems,” explains Marco Amica, an affected dealer. In comparison, the waiting time in the neighboring Main-Taunus district is only one to two days, which makes the gap between the cities even clearer. Other Hessian cities such as Fulda and Gießen also offer significantly faster appointments.

The express option

However, there are alternatives for those in a hurry. Express services such as “Express Admission Frankfurt” offer options for securing faster appointments – often within two days. However, this is not cheap: the basic fee for express registration is 199 euros. These service providers have developed their own optimized processes and work closely with the admissions office to minimize waiting times hessenschau.de reported.

The current delays are not only due to a high number of applications in the spring. The fact that citizens often book multiple appointments also leads to overbooking. In response, the city has already opened on two Saturdays in April to counteract the backlog of applications. However, the situation remains tense, with waiting times currently averaging around ten days.

Need for reform in the system

The discussion about the slow approval processes is not new. Even before the pandemic, long waiting times for vehicle registrations were causing emotions to heat up, especially in large cities such as Frankfurt and Cologne. The leading associations in the automotive industry are calling on the authorities to act quickly to avert economic damage to the motor vehicle trade and the entire automotive industry. autobild.de highlights that there is also the option of using admission services, which can arrange appointments within one or two days, but charge additional fees of 30 to 50 euros in addition to the regular admission fees.

The city administration is optimistic that processing times will return to the previous year's level once the IT conversion is completed. But citizens' concerns and frustration about long waiting times remain high, and so it remains to be seen whether the necessary adjustments to the system will soon bear fruit.