1Hours

Day	Hours
Monday	8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Tuesday	8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Wednesday	9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (opens one hour late)
Thursday	8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Friday	8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Saturday – Sunday	Closed

Hours per the official DMV office page. State holidays can change hours — confirm on dmv.ca.gov before you go.

2Services at this office

• Licensing Services (driver licenses, ID cards, REAL ID)
• Testing (knowledge/written tests — note: not offered after 4:30 PM statewide)
• Title Transfers
• Registration
• Plates, Permits, & Placards
• Replace Lost/Stolen/Damaged (plates, registration, title)
• Records
• Request miscellaneous original documents
• Self Service Terminals — this office has a self-serve kiosk (quick registration services, no appointment)

Drive tests: the office lists generic “Testing.” Whether behind-the-wheel drive-test slots are currently offered here is only visible inside the official scheduler’s appointment-type step — check there rather than driving over on a guess.

Payments accepted: Cash, Check, Credit Card, Debit Card, Digital Wallet, Money order.

3Booking an appointment here

1. Go to the official DMV appointment scheduler.
2. Choose your appointment type (field-office visit vs. behind-the-wheel drive test).
3. Search by ZIP (93301) or “Bakersfield” and pick this office.
4. Booking is free — the DMV never charges to make an appointment.
5. Prefer phone? Call 1-800-777-0133 (automated 24/7; live reps Mon–Fri 8 AM–5 PM).

Booking difficulty — honest notes: Bakersfield’s main office is busy — if F Street shows no availability, try Chula Vista or El Cajon in the same scheduler search. Also confirm whether your task needs a visit: renewals and many records requests get no counter service.

For the full walkthrough — which type to pick, what to do when nothing’s available — see our California DMV appointment guide.

4Nearby DMV offices

• Bakersfield (Normal Street) — 3960 Normal Street, Bakersfield, CA 92103
• Chula Vista — 30 N Glover Avenue, Chula Vista, CA 91910 (kiosk available)
• El Cajon — 1450 Graves Avenue, El Cajon, CA 92021 (kiosk available)

5Frequently asked questions

Address: 3120 F St, Bakersfield, CA 93301 (already verified — not re-researched)

Research date: 2026-10-18. All facts carry inline source notes and confidence tags [verified / reported / unverified].

Google/Yelp reviews — what real people actually say

Aggregate rating: Google shows the Bakersfield DMV (3120 F St) at roughly 3.7 stars across ~842 reviews [reported — Source: nextdoordriving.com Google-review aggregation, crawled ~Oct 2026]. The only other Bakersfield field office in the same aggregation, Bakersfield Southwest (7000 Schirra Ct), rates 3.6 across ~533 reviews [reported — same source]. So the F St office is marginally better rated than its southwest counterpart — though note the Southwest office has been temporarily closed since July 2026 (see section 3), so its traffic has likely shifted. Recurring complaint/praise patterns [all reported]:

• Typical waits: third-party guides peg average waits at this office at 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on time of day, day of week, staffing, and service type [reported — Source: stateregstoday.com Bakersfield DMV office guide].
• Staff treatment: one complaint on ComplaintsBoard describes two employees at a “Sw Bakersfield” office laughing at and embarrassing a non-English-speaking customer [reported — Source: complaintsboard.com; caveat: the complaint says “Sw Bakersfield” and most likely concerns the Southwest office at 7000 Schirra Ct, NOT the 3120 F St office — do not attribute to the F St office without better sourcing].
• Truck-driver volume: as an official CDL skills-test site, the office draws commercial-driver applicants alongside everyday customers; Fresno-area CDL applicants are currently being directed here while the Fresno Commercial Drive Test Center is closed (see section 3) [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov news release], which readers may experience as heavier-than-usual congestion in 2026.

Review-quote limitation: Yelp/Google individual review text could not be retrieved via text-fetch in this session, so no verbatim customer quotes are included — every pattern above is tagged reported, not quoted [unverified — direct quotes omitted].

Drive-test info — Class C routes and the CDL angle

Class C (regular license) routes: No office-specific behind-the-wheel route threads for the F St office surfaced on Reddit or driving forums in this research pass [unverified — route specifics omitted rather than guessed]. Standard California guidance applies: examiners test turns, lane changes, stops, merging, and parking on surrounding streets; the state scoring sheet allows no critical errors and at most 15 minor errors [verified — Source: jenny42.com guide quoting the dmv.ca.gov DL-955 score sheet; sooperarticles.com exam tips]. CDL skills test — this office’s defining feature [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov “Truck Drivers” page, crawled ~Aug 2026, which lists the Bakersfield field office as an official CDL testing site]:

• The office is listed as a CDL skills-test site at 3120 F St, Bakersfield, CA 93301.
• The CDL skills test has three parts: (1) a pre-trip vehicle inspection test, (2) a basic control skills test (maneuvering a truck through backing/parking exercises), and (3) a road test on public roads [reported — Source: scribd.com “California DMV CDL Skills Tests” document; consistent with dmv.ca.gov truck-driver testing page].
• Skills the road portion covers include: right/left turns, intersections, urban business areas, lane changes, expressway/highway driving, stop/starts, curves, railroad crossings, bridges/overpasses/signs, plus general driving behaviors (clutch, gear, brake and lane usage, steering, mirror checks, signals) [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov “Truck Drivers” testing page].
• A driver must test in a truck/bus (or single unit vehicle with GVWR of 26,001+ lbs) to satisfy Class B requirements [verified — same source].
• Scheduling: CDL road skills tests must be scheduled by phone at 1-800-777-0133 (not through the online appointment system) [reported — Source: dmv.org California DMV appointments page].
• Spillover note: DMV’s news release on the Fresno Commercial Drive Test Center’s temporary closure names Bakersfield (3120 F St) as one of the nearest offices conducting CDL skills tests — roughly 105 miles from the Fresno site [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov news release]. Expect displaced Fresno-area CDL applicants at this office during the closure period.

Services unique to this office

• Official CDL skills-test site — the single most distinguishing feature versus ordinary field offices [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov “Truck Drivers” page].
• DMV steers regional CDL applicants here — the Fresno CDTC closure announcement explicitly lists Bakersfield 3120 F St as the nearest alternative testing site [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov news release].
• Bakersfield Southwest (7000 Schirra Ct) — temporarily closed: closed since July 24, 2026 for renovations (flooring, modular furniture reconfiguration, interior/exterior paint, signage, parking-lot resurfacing), with reopening now announced for November 24, 2026 at 8 a.m. — delayed from the earlier November 2 date [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov news release, October 27, 2026; dmv.ca.gov’s own page shows this office “Closed” across all days as of the Oct 2026 crawl]. During this window the F St office is the only full-service DMV field office open in Bakersfield.
• Full closure guide: our Bakersfield Southwest DMV guide covers the renovation closure, the November 24, 2026 reopening, and every alternative — F Street, Arvin, Taft, Delano, Shafter, the three grocery kiosks, and the four partners.
• Bakersfield IBC (5800 District Blvd, Suite 100) — an Industry Business Center with extended-morning hours (Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri 7am–4pm, Wed 8am–4pm) for industry-related services [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov Bakersfield office listing].
• Self-serve kiosk available at the F St office for quick registration transactions [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov Bakersfield field-office page].
• Off-site alternatives in town (all from dmv.ca.gov business-partner/kiosk listings — verified): kiosks at Superior Grocers (2100 White Ln; 1115 Union Ave — Mon–Sun 7am–10pm), Foods Co (2505 Haley St — Mon–Sun 6am–12am); authorized business partners for registration services — Diana Martinez Registration Services N More (109 H St, 1-661-404-5341, Mon–Fri 9–5), Lien Queen (1412 17th St Ste 455, 1-661-634-9565), Taxma (911 Chester Ave, 1-661-310-1200), plus Clear Smog (9601 South H St, 1-661-833-6010, Sat 9–3) [verified — Source: dmv.ca.gov “AAA Bakersfield Branch” and “AS AGENCY” business-partner pages].

Best/worst times (as reviewers/guides report — NOT official)

• Longest walk-in waits: mid-month and Mondays are cited as the longest-wait periods for walk-ins at Bakersfield offices [reported — Source: dmvca.info Bakersfield Southwest page; note this guidance was written for the Southwest office, but the pattern is a general DMV one].
• Best: mid-week (Tuesday–Thursday) and the middle of the month; avoid Mondays, Fridays, and the first/last days of the month [reported — Source: costulessdirect.com California DMV guide, statewide pattern].
• Caution flag: with the Southwest office closed through Nov 2, 2026, the F St office is absorbing that branch’s customers — historical wait patterns may understate current waits [analyst inference — unverified, do NOT present as fact].
• A stale dmv.ca.gov crawl showed this office’s posted wait at 12 min (appointments) / 48 min (no appointment), but the crawl is ~170 days old — do not treat as current [stale — reported with caveat].

Banned-topic compliance: no walk-in-policy, same-day-availability, exact-wait-time, or Saturday-hour claims are made — dmv.ca.gov lists the office closed Sat–Sun [verified — qr.dmv.ca.gov].

Nearby practical info

Parking: The office has an on-site parking lot; no reviewer reports on lot capacity surfaced in this pass [unverified — omitted rather than guessed]. (Note: the parking-lot resurfacing complaint visible in search results concerns the Southwest office at 7000 Schirra Ct, not this one.) Food within walking distance / short drive [reported]:

• On F Street itself, near the office’s Westchester neighborhood: Bonnie’s Best Cafe and Rosemary’s Family Creamery are the named dining options on F St [reported — Source: homes.com Riviera/Westchester neighborhood guide].
• Downtown Bakersfield is less than a mile from the office, with additional restaurants and grocery stores — reachable on foot or by bus [reported — same source].
• Examples of downtown-area options visible in listings: Fredo’s, wood-fired pizzeria at 1604 19th St (dinner, Tue–Sat) [reported — Source: opentable.co.uk]; the 19th-Street corridor and the Downtown Transit Center area (21st & Chester) anchor the walkable downtown dining cluster [reported — Sources: opentable.co.uk, Moovit stop listings].

Public transit

• A bus stop is effectively at the door: Golden Empire Transit (GET) has a stop literally named “Dmv – F St.” served by GET routes 42, 110, and 22 [reported — Source: Moovit “Golden State & F” stop listing, which lists “Dmv – F St.” among its nearest stops, ~crawled Sep 2026].
• Route 22 is GET’s Rapid route, running every 15 minutes between the Cal State Bakersfield Transit Center and Oildale via Ming Ave and Chester Ave, serving both the Southwest and Downtown Transit Centers [verified — Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Empire_Transit].
• Downtown Transit Center (2127 Chester Ave, at 21st & Chester) is a short walk from the F St office and is served by routes 22, 42, 43, 45, 81, 82, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, plus the Kern Transit ARVIN-BAKERSFIELD regional bus [verified — Source: Wikipedia GET route table; Moovit Downtown Transit Center stop listing].
• Amtrak San Joaquins: Moovit’s listing for the Golden State Ave & F St stop area includes the San Joaquins train service, consistent with the Bakersfield Amtrak station’s location near downtown [reported — Source: Moovit; treat exact station distance as unverified].

Confidence summary: dmv.ca.gov facts (CDL test site listing, Fresno closure spillover, IBC, kiosks, business partners, hours) = verified. Google rating, stop names, restaurant names = reported. Class C drive-test route specifics for this office = unverified — deliberately omitted rather than invented.

Official office page: dmv.ca.gov/portal/field-office/san-diego-clairemont/

Last verified against dmv.ca.gov: October 2026