There are changes coming to driver testing in the new year, and a local agency hopes it won’t affect customer service. On Oct. 2 the provincial government announced it would be taking full control of driving examinations, eliminating the private sector of contracted testers. The change comes as a response to the Humboldt crash in April. Alberta Transportation Minister Brian Mason said it’s the best solution to fix poor service levels, high fees and lack of access in remote areas during a press conference in October. “The government has been talking about doing something about commercial testing and commercial mandatory driver education for years and this is the culmination, I think, of a lot of years of talking about it,” said Bev Carlson, owner of Ardiel Agencies in Okotoks. She said some of the arguments don’t make much sense though, and could affect clients in urban or larger rural centres. For one thing, she said the number of examiners is set to rise from 153 private contractors to 161 government employees, but at the same time the Province intends to better service remote areas, which means those people will be serving a much larger area. Currently, smaller remote areas don’t have access to all examination levels, she said, and the government is promising equal access to all registry offices. “I can’t see how it won’t affect availability in the urban and other rural offices,” said Carlson. “You’re going to have almost the same number of examiners but they’re going to be spread out more.” As for addressing high fees, Carlson said the government’s fixed fee structure will actually see the cost of driving exams increase in Okotoks. As private contractors, examiners have been able to set their own fees in conjunction with the registries offices they worked with, she said. There were some places, primarily in larger urban centres, where those fees were higher than what the government is laying out, she said. “But in most of the rural centres, and ours is one of them, the fees are actually going to go up under the government proposal,” said Carlson. “Some of them not by much, some only by $5 or $6, but some of them substantially, when you get into the commercial classes.” Another concern for Ardiel Agencies is the inability to choose which examiners to work with, she said. Private driving testers are contracted to the Government of Alberta now, but registries can choose who to work with, she said. Under the new system, it’s unlikely Ardiel will know which examiner they’ll be working with from one week or day to the next, she said. It could cause problems for some clients, she said. “We have had instances in the past where we’ve chosen to no longer deal with certain examiners because of feedback from the public, and that’s not going to be an option for us any longer,” said Carlson. She said registry agents have also taken exception to Mason inferring the government would now have enhanced oversight to ensure road tests are conducted fairly, consistently and professionally. It’s something the Province has always had oversight on, she said. The provincial government hires and trains examiners, and sends people out to do ride-alongs on exams regularly to monitor contracted testers, she said. “They’ve always had the ability to either keep an examiner or let an examiner go and not renew their licence, and they’re the ones who have always monitored the examiners in the past, it’s not new,” said Carlson. “It wasn’t just a free-for-all before. I’m not sure how they’re going to do it differently.” Carlson said overall her biggest concern is whether road test examiners will be available when they’re needed in a place like Okotoks. At Ardiel now, someone can book a test and be on the road within a week, she said. She’s worried that wait time will be extended in the future. “The most important thing to us is service to the public because we’re the front line for that, so we certainly hope that this system they’re going to put in place has all the benefits they say it’s going to have and it goes off without too many hiccups,” said Carlson. “That’s our wish.” Driver examination changes are set to come into effect on March 1.
