Local drivers struggle with pandemic-driven backlog of road tests

Road tests hit traffic jam A pandemic-driven backlog has forced many would be drivers to hit the brakes on getting their licenses. CTV Windsor's Sijia Liu explains.

Windsor, Ont. — Some local residents found themselves jumping through hoops to snag an appointment for an in-vehicle driving exam.

“There’s some days where I waited anywhere from an hour to five hours in a virtual line just to not to be able to book anything,” says Rachel Spadatto, who has been trying to book a road test for her 17-year-old daughter and 19-year-old son.

“It became very frustrating.”

Spadotto is not alone. Since March 2020, there have been approximately 421,827 road tests cancelled across Ontario due to pandemic lockdowns. This includes 8,772 at the Windsor DriveTest centre and 7,852 at the London DriveTest centre.

To address the bottleneck, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation has opened temporary testing locations in Guelph and Oshawa.

Additional satellite centres are opening September in the Greater Toronto Area and the Niagara/Hamilton region, but none in Windsor-Essex or London.

Jacob Hammoud owner of iDrive driving school in Windsor says adding temporary locations is not the solution to clearing the backlog because the shortage is in the manpower.

“Rather than opening another location and dividing the examiners in half into two different groups two different locations. The money should be invested in hiring new examiners,” Hammoud explains.

The province says recruitment is underway to hire these 251 new temporary examiners by September 2021. Driver examiners will be assigned to DriveTest centres across the province, including 6 additional examiners in Windsor increasing passenger road testing capacity by 55 per cent and five examiners in London, increasing passenger road testing by 50 per cent.

Road test appointments are currently booking up to six months in advance, with new blocks of appointments opening up weekly as new examiners come on board.

Some drivers have been able snatch one of these last-minute testing appointments, but Hammoud says that has resulted in some drivers arriving to the tests unprepared and failing.

“They’re showing up to the road test centre without completing any of their classes,” Hammound says. “Not only are they failing the road test, they are taking away the time slot from someone who is desperately in need of getting their G2.”

Prior to the pandemic, the G and G2 pass rate in Windsor was 62 per cent, according to Hammoud. He expects the pass percentage to drop.

“Coming up in 2021 will be amongst the highest of failing,” he says.

Hammoud advises would-be-drivers to complete their lessons first before booking a road test, even if that means waiting a bit longer.

“All it takes is just one time if you do things the right way, rather than going there and taking up multiple spots,” he says.

As for Spadotto, after months of attempting to book online, she has successfully booked road tests for her two children in February 2022.