Was it worth the hassle? Calgarians hope to see improvements in privatized driving exam services

Alberta will re-privatize road tests in January after two years of attempt under the government model

Calgarians are looking forward to easier road test booking starting next year, but concerns about testing standards and safety are still waiting to be addressed.

On Oct. 22, Alberta Transportation announced that the road test services for class 4, 5, and 6 will be privatized again starting Jan. 5 next year.

The reversion is intended to address the backlog that is caused initially by the lack of examiners, and then, the halt of driving exams between March 19 and June 30 this year due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

“It’s going to have a huge impact on people’s livelihood as well because driver’s license is a very important milestone and very critical to many,” said Maruf Abdulsalam, a newcomer to Calgary who had to wait two months to take his road test.

“When people are able to have their road test done, they pass and get their license, it’ll enable them to secure jobs and improve the economy as well.”

Concerns

While people are happy to see an end to the frustrating wait time, they also hope to see improvements from the previous private model.

“There definitely was a reason for the government to take it over initially, and the question now is: has that reason been eliminated, and has the problem been solved,” said Abdulsalam.

According to Brian Mason, the ex-minister of Alberta Transportation back in October 2018, the government model was the best solution to improve poor service, including examiners pass or fail the driver for non-ethical reasons, high fees and lack of access in smaller road test centres.

Indeed, when the examiners make fixed salary instead of commission, it prevents the examiners from failing the driver just because they want people to pay for the road test again, but it also drove almost half of the working examiners at the time away, leaving only 77 examiners to start in March 2019 under the government model.

The president of the Alberta Association of Registry Agents, Craig Couillard said during the announcement last month that the registries are looking to re-establish their relationship with private sector examiners to help the backlog.

“We're also making improvements to increase government oversight of how road tests are conducted through electronic monitoring of each road test,” said Alberta’s Transportation Minister Ric McIver during the annoucement.

Alberta Transportation was monitoring the road tests under the private model before, and there is yet more detail about how the monitoring is going to be conducted after next January.

Linda Palmer, the VP operations of Registry Direct Inc. on Centre Street, said “I think we’ll be able to deliver on that.”

“It sounds like the government is willing to support us and make sure that we have an adequate supply of driver examiners that are qualified, well trained, and with good supervision, follow-up, and accountability.”

COVID Safety

Palmer said that their location has already hired some examiners to start in January, and they are getting additional space ready to accommodate more road tests while the examiners and people waiting for their tests can maintain a safe physical distance.

“We want to have enough so that we can run as many tests as our space and size permits to help with the pent-up demand in the system,” she said.

“Our primary focus is to keep everybody safe with lots of room.”

Andy Liu, a parent of a new driver, said that in addition to the safety measures in the registries and in the vehicle, he would like to see registries continue with the flexibility of road test cancellation due to COVID symptoms.

On the day of her road test, Liu's daughter had a headache and her road test was cancelled so that she can take it after her symptoms disappear.

There definitely was a reason for the government to take it over initially, and the question now is: has that reason been eliminated, and has the problem been solvedMaruf Abdulsalam

“I think it’s really good that they allow you to reschedule.”

Palmer said there is still much uncertainty about the upcoming changes, including the fee and how the online scheduler is going to be incorporated.

The president of the Alberta Association of Registry Agents, Craig Couillard, stated there will be a hub-and-spoke model introduced so the larger road test centres will support the smaller ones in the rural communities when needed, and people are waiting to see how that is going to carry out.

“Throughout COVID, we've been required to make big changes in a very short period of time, and we’ve got great staff right now, really hard-working people who are dedicated and doing an amazing job during this very difficult time,” said Palmer.

“I think we're going to make it.”

Palmer said the backlog should ease in about six months.