Ministry of Transportation in Ontario

Well Today was the day for our New Classroom to be inspected in Burlington, Ontario. When we decided to make the switch from our former franchised program to DriveWise and knew that the DriveWise Safe Start program included Simulation Training, we looked at our facility in Burlington and knew there was no way we could squeeze in a simulator large or small...!!! We had managed to get 24 students squeezed into that classroom but it was tight. Luckly a dog groomer below us decided to move out and we took over their vacant spot. Tim and our friend John Ziemba spent many hours gutting the space and re-building the site to be useable as a classroom facility and this included building in steel double doors to get the simulator in and out of. We put all the finishing touches on the space over the August long weekend and today was the day for the MTO Inspection/Audit. We had a lot of stuff to prepare prior to the Auditors arrival, wanting to ensure that all of our documentation was ready for him to inspect. Plus we had to ensure that our vehicles and instructors came in to have their vehicles inspected as well. We had a lot of nervous anticipation last night as I suppose anyone awaiting an audit would. Inspector Fred came into the facility and took some pictures and even had a go on the simulator. He tried the Classroom Performance System, inspected the instructors, inspected all of our paperwork and took a lot of pictures. At the end of our inspection he said we ran a really good tight business!!

When you run your own business and you put a lot of care and attention into every detail, it is great to have someone notice your effort. It is even better when it is a regulating body like a Government Inspector.

The driver training industry in general, widely ranges in degrees of professionalism within the schools or facilities themselves. You have the big franchised schools where you are more or less assured of some quality standards but even within those organizations the school owners themselves can fall short of the mark, if the franchisors aren't keeping a close eye. Then you have the independent schools who are only regulated and governed by the Ministry of Transportation (MTO), these small schools if run properly, following all of the guidlines as outlined by the MTO, will find the economics of delivering the program very challenging unless they are pricing their program in the range of $700.00 as a course fee. Let's do the Math...

An MTO approved course priced at $500.00 or lower will find the following constraints...

The course includes 10 hours in-car training time - 500.00 divided by 10 hours is $50.00 per hour wow great wage...now we have to account for a car payment/repairs/gas and let's not forget insurance (part of being involved with a large group means lower insurance costs) - now we need someone to answer the phone to schedule all of those lessons, oh ya and keep all of the paperwork in order and fill out the certificate and pay the MTO certification fee. Now the school will need to pay rent for a permenant facility as that is also part of the MTO guidelines. You will probably need to have a little money to advertise the program and finally let's not forget we need to deduct the cost of providing 25 hours of classroom time as part of the program.

So what do we end up with...???

If you are purchasing a Driver Training program for under $500.00 - if the school is providing everything they are suppose as guided by the MTO - then the person delivering the in-car portion of the program is probably making less money per hour then someone who is only making minimum wage...!!!!

Think about this...when you are learning how to drive you are learning a LIFE SKILL...a skill that will not only stay with you for life...but which will also one day SAVE YOUR LIFE...If you make something like Driver's Education CHEAP...aren't you valuing your life at that same level...???

Some of the new measures, checks and balances that are being put in place by the MTO are necessary steps in achieving some conformity within the driver training industry. Although I was not thrilled to have to scramble to get all of my paperwork together to be inspected again in less then a years time since my last inspection, I was happy to see how thoroughly they looked over all of our documents and made sure that we were and continue to be in compliance with and living up to their standards.

Great job today DriveWise Burlington team...you did us proud...!!!