Beware of road test book scams

About the author: Carmel C. Tse is Director of Curriculum of iPass, a CAA Approved Driving School. He is a former newspaper editor at The London Free Press and a consultant at Gannett newspapers.

I recently received an inquiry from a new Canadian about using our vehicle for the road test. I explained to her that driving schools are in the teaching business and not into car rentals.

Very few of my colleagues in our industry will feel comfortable “renting” out their cars to unknown students taking the road tests. We usually offer the service only to our own students.

Students who had previously tried on their own and failed or had a different instructor may ask another instructors to provide some private lessons. Through the conversation, I got the message that this student had already booked for her examination and needed urgent help as the road test was imminent. So I asked what date she had booked and the answer was “some time in the morning next Friday.” The alarm bell went off as the Ministry of Transportation’s road test booking system will only accept bookings with a firm date and time.

This student went to a web site that offers “road test booking” service. She gave them the same information as she would have given to the government web site. They also asked for her email address to send a receipt and this is something the genuine Ontario government site will not even bother asking. The receipt is for a charge of about $120. The site didn’t give her a firm date as it would have to try book her a closest date she requested, I guess through the free system.

I asked for her permission to check her bookings by using information she provided and found out that she was actually booked for two Fridays later.

She was luckier than one of my former students who also fell for that trap and never got his exam booked. I would not name the fraudulent site as this will give them more advertising, but it is the top ad at a Google search for the key phrase “road test booking online”.

When a student writes the G1 written test the first time, the $146 fee already includes five years of licensing and one G1-Exit road test or commonly refer to as the G2 text. In the event of a failure, subsequent G2 tests are $50.75 each. There is no charge to book the road test by phone or by internet.

Here is the official secured site address: https://www.irtb.rus.mto.gov.on.ca/ You can also find a link on our own Home Page to book the road test through “DriveTest”, the agency that is commissioned by the Ontario government to administer the road tests. Remember at that genuine site, you will get a firm date and time for your requested date. There is no charge unless you had failed or missed a previous test. DriveTest had published some sort of warning about this site, but fell short of shutting it down.