Canotek DriveTest opens its doors to line of customers

Those at the front of the line had been waiting an hour before being admitted, one by one, into the centre.

In an effort to restore some of the essential services amid the continuing strike by USW employees, DriveTest management employees opened the doors of six locations across the province on Thursday, Nov. 12. Besides the one centre on Canotek Road, the other locations that have opened are in Brampton, Toronto, Kitchener, North Bay and Thunder Bay.

Given the limited number of centres open, many had to drive into Ottawa to get their license, some travelling from as far as Cornwall and Carp. While some 16-year-olds were waiting to finally get a chance to write for their G1, others were anxiously waiting to get their commercial license for work.

Jordan Sanders, who already has a G license, drove in from Cornwall to write for his AZ license so he can help his father haul corn, soybeans and wheat.

Happy managers are offering partial services – “It’s better than nothing,” he noted – Sanders indicated while he can write for his AZ, he’s not sure how long he’ll have to wait to take the road test, which will allow him to take one of the two trucks his dad owns.

“I’m not sure how backed up it is,” he said.

DriveTest is only offering limited services to customers who need their licenses for employment or who have registered for driver training. The only services that will be provided are written tests for all classes of license, road tests for commercial classified licenses only, and out-of-province and out-of-country license exchanges. That means DriveTest will not be conducting any road tests for G2, G or D1 licenses.

“We will be giving priority to the people whose livelihood has been most impacted by this strike,” DriveTest managing director Paul Dalglish said in a released statement. “In doing so, we had to make some difficult choices about where to deploy our limited resources. We hope that these focused efforts can begin to address the hardship this strike has caused.”

Customers who hold a license that expired after Aug. 24 due to the need for a retest are still covered by the automatic license extension put in place by the Ministry of Transportation. DriveTest has noted those customers do not need to go the centres at this time, which does not have the need or capacity to serve these customers until the strike ends.

Up-to-date details regarding this partial resumption of service is available at www.DriveTest.ca. DriveTest advises it is important customers check the website for updates and instructions before heading to a DriveTest Centre. Customers should be prepared to substantiate that they need their license for employment or training purposes.