I hope you contacted the driving school as well as the government ministry who over sees driver training schools in Ontario to report this?

Re:Driver trainers get your act together.Hi my name is Tom Smith i live in Kingston and this story really got to me on how unfare the rules for driver training is. I have been driving commertion Trucks both Tractor trailer and straight for over 27yrs with out any violations of any sort,clean drivers abstract and C,V.O.R.I have twin girls and they just recived there drivers licence with only 1or2 checks from the MTO instructor ,I have also trained myself a couple family and friend's with out trouble .My dad drove for over 50 some yrs and my brother had 25yrs commertional expirence in when I was tought. My beef is How come a person with a perfect recorded has to pay for a driver trainer for hundreds of dollars who maybe has a year expeience and have only driven on are roads for a year or so,as you gentlemen witnessed take your kids and familys lifes in there hands and teach them everything not to do ie,following to close,weaving etc. I went to my insurance company and they told me that because my girls did not go to a driving school my insurance went from 800.00 a year to 2700.00 (so there gos my pick up to a caravan with just enough coverage to make it legal)I know I am not a certified driving insructor but do you not think a bit of the back round of who trained the student would not help a little with the cost of their insurance? I no that they cannot be mind readers( But they have computers now and in a second can find out your driving history), but I no more excellent self taught (home schooled drivers) then any school taught.I no things have changed and there is more traffic so on so forth, but the drivers that have been driving and have no records, have had to keep up to the changes also and there must be something working. Take care and thanks for your time Tom Smith

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, WHILE NORTH BOUND ONHWY 35 HEADING FOR LINDSAY, A YOUNG DRIVERS OF CANADA SCHOOL CAR PASSED ME AS IF I WERE IN REVERSE. THE CAR HAD TO BE DOING 120 KPH IN A 80 KPH ZONE. I DID CALL THE SCHOOL, LOCATED IN LINDSAY AND REPORTED THE DRIVERS POOR DRIVING. I ALSO CALLED THE LOCAL POLICE, HOWEVER, THEY WANTED TO KNOW WHAT I WOULD LIKE THEM TO DO. JEEEZE, I WONDEWR WHAT THEY SHOULD DO? MAYBE SEE THE DRIVING SCHOOLS' TOP DOG AND HAVE THE SITUATION CORRECTED.

TOM

A few years ago, I was a lease operator at a big company that hauled everything from vans and flatdecks to muti-axle heavy haul. I usually pulled a 9-axle lowboy with my truck and, because I often required one or more pilot cars when I was loaded, and because finding a good pilot vehicle when you needed one was nearly impossible, I built my own F250 diesel 4x4 pilot truck to work with me. I hired a kid to drive it who was more interested in trucks and trucking than any truck driver I had ever met! This guy was, without a doubt, one of the best pilot drivers ever! I had lots of very good heavy-haulers with the same company and also with other companies call and ask for him to pilot them with their oversize loads. Soon after he started working for me, he decided to get his class 1 license, and because he had lots of experience driving my truck (when I did smaller loads and didn't need the pilot truck, he would go with me and drive as much as I would let him), he went for his driver's test and aced it the first time at barely over 18 years old. The driver examiner could not believe how capable he was and praised whoever taught him to drive! That was a feather in my cap! Anyway, after getting his class 1, I would, on occasion, have him drive the big truck and I would drive the pilot truck. He handled it like an old hand, and if he had a question or concern, I was at the other end of the VHF radio. On one trip, we were hauling a Cat 631D motor scraper 13' wide, 15' high, 110' long, and about 165,000# gross and we were close to the yard, one of the suits from the office met us and realized that I was in the pilot truck, following the load down the 4 lane highway. The suit decided to phone me immediately and chew me a new butt. My driver answered the phone in my big truck and we were caught!. After several arguments with the office people, I finally convinced them that if I was comfortable with him driving my truck, and they had me hauling those kinds of loads most of the time, maybe I was in a better position to decide if he was capable of doing it than someone in our safety department who had NEVER hauled anything that didn't fit in a van. They decided to put my driver through all the ordinary stuff of a new-hire and then he had to go out on trips with a senior driver trainer ( who also had never hauled anything that didn't go in a van ). Rules are rules, so we went along with it and, after I had made another week-long trip, and he had been 'training' while I was gone, I found out that the senior driver trainer had failed my driver. I asked why and was told that he used his left foot on the brake pedal a couple times, so it was an immediate fail! "Everyone knows that you are supposed to take your right foot off the throttle and use it on the brake pedal." I asked my driver why and where he did this and found out that they were going down a big hill, loaded, and there was a traffic light at the bottom that had just turned yellow, soon to be red. To shift down, he knew that you have to rev the engine up in order to drop a gear, and while your right foot is on the throttle, and the light is changing to red, you should have some foot on the brake pedal while the gearshift passes through neutral. Most humans have only two feet, so while the right one is busy, why not use the other one? Makes sense to me and to anyone with any amount of experience that drives through big hills or mountains. But not to a senior driver trainer??? The driver who was 'no good' went on to be a very good heavy-haul driver and the senior driver trainer flopped his flatdeck in the ditch on a warm dry sunny afternoon. Some driver trainers have no business 'training' others, but like I've read before, those who can't do it teach it!

A few years ago my nephew went for his driver ed. The trainer (male)was not much older than him and his instructions were to drive past the high school so he could yell out the window at the girls as they left the school.
My advise is if you have a loved one that will soon be looking for driver ed to check out thses schools. Ask a friend or or just follow one of the cars around some day.

Further to Adam Ledlow's experience traveling Hwy 404, I witnessed driver training northbound near noon Friday June 4, in medium traffic driving in the centre lane, speeds varied from 80 kph to 110 kph........finally north of Bloomington they got into the right lane. What are these driver trainers thinking about when they have young/new driver's on the road?

There are over 6,000 licenced driving school instructors in this Province. All have completed a four week training program laid out by MTO. All have been retested by DriveTest prior to beening issued an instructors licence. Most have been trained by the Ontario Safety League and the standards have been updated significantly in the last 5 years. All our subject to audit by MTO, who now use secret shoppers as well. Schools have been closed as a result of these audits. The OSL is committed to raising standards and dealing with sub-standard schools. Feel free to let us know. Dealing with larger vehicles is part of every course in Ontario. Provincial standards, regulation and public education can only go so far if you see "Problem companies or illegal activity" report it. As road professionals if asked who is a good driving school for my kid ? remember this its likely not the cheapest and local reputation matters> If you don't know one call the Ontario Safety League and we will point you in the right direction. 97 years as Ontario's Safety Leader is a good place to start.

I too have no faith in most of these driving schools or the MTO's ability to test new drivers. I have been a driving instructor in trucks and school bus for more years than I like to admit and when it came time for my daughter to learn to drive after one lesson from a drivers ed program I took her out and did it myself. Neither the schools or MTO examiners put enough emphasis on defensive driving, in fact I have seen MTO actually fail a person for not turning on an advance green when I truck coming the other way looked to be moving to fast to stop.
My daughter has now been driving for 12 years with no tickets or accidents and still many of her friends wonder why she takes her foot of the accerator when approaching a green light.
This is only one aspect of where the 4 wheel schools mess up, the basic vehicle handling is something not even some of the instructors can manager as you have said.

FYI - the correct following distance for a car is 2 seconds in good weather at least double in wet conditions. For a tractor trailer is 8 seconds.

Very good points Robert! I am glad to see that I am not alone when I see that a lot of drivers, old and especially new, take it for granted that when it is 'their turn', they are ok to proceed without any consideration of whether it is safe to proceed. I have seen the similar reactions from my passengers when I take my foot off the throttle and 'cover' the brake pedal when approaching intersections, but I have found that less than half of drivers actually stop at stop signs and you're never sure if people will even get stopped at a red light, so just because you have a green light doesn't mean that it is safe to go. As far as handling the vehicle, a bunch of instructors probably have very little actual experience in adverse conditions or outside their local comfort zone. As I have read before, 'those who can't do it usually teach it!'