A high no-show rate for road test appointments is a big reason you may have to wait weeks to get one, according to the Prince Edward Island government.
'People probably don’t recognize when they don’t show there’s a very bottleneck kind of effect'
Connor Lamont · CBC News
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A high rate of no-shows for road test appointments is a big reason Islanders are waiting weeks for a test, according to the P.E.I. government.
Charlottetown is seeing some of the longest waits at five to six weeks, which has been consistent since the pandemic.
“When we don’t know that somebody is not going to show, they don’t give us 24 hours notice, and that creates a lot of vacancy and that pushes back our wait times,” said Kristi MacKay, operations manager at Highway Safety.
“People probably don’t recognize when they don’t show there’s a very bottleneck kind of effect.”
MacKay said it’s best to give a heads up if you’re not going to make it to your appointment.
Charlottetown this month alone had 105 no-shows for written tests, road tests, interviews and courses, she noted.
"That’s very high for one location and people maybe just don’t understand it’s one appointment but if they don’t realize if that’s done over many people, it certainly contributes,” MacKay said.
The province is also trying to fill vacancies for drive test examiners. There are two openings in Summerside and one in Charlottetown.
MacKay said government is also looking into a queue management system for appointment booking, through an app.
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“If they knew in advance of not being able to come for their appointment, then it would be an opportunity for an automated type of cancellation,” she said.
“We’d get the notification and then we’d have an opportunity to either have a waitlist or somebody would be able to get that appointment, because we’d have an idea that if there was a last-minute situation in their life then we could get them in on a pretty short notice.”
A statement from the province to CBC News said demand for driving tests can fluctuate seasonally but that current wait times are typical.
It suggested Islanders book appointments as early as possible through Access P.E.I.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Connor Lamont is a news reporter at CBC Prince Edward Island, based in Charlottetown. He previously worked at CBC News Network in Toronto and is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University.
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