Its your 16th birthday, the day you’ve been waiting for. You go downstairs and greet your family and greet them because its your special day, you collect your gifts and you cut your cake. By ministry standards, you’ve been approved to obtain your learners permit and decide to go with your parents to pass the written exam for driving. Now its time for you to learn how to physically drive a vehicle, your parents tell you that they won’t be around as much to teach you how to drive and advise you to take the easier path by going to a certified driving school. What do you decide to do next? You make a pros and con’s list about attending a certified driving school. You start off assessing the pro’s below
1. Certified driving schools allow insurance rates to be reduced significantly
According to the law in Ontario, drivers must be insured to drive on the road. Insurance protects drivers in the case of a potential collision, causing drivers to be compensated if redeemable (depends on who is at fault). Depending on where you live, Insurance may vary due to a variety of factors such as crime and claims, but the most important one comes down to collisions/ accidents. In Ontario, insurance is deemed high because of drivers not being able to fully grasp how to operate a vehicle, causing infinite amount of collisions/ death on the road. According to research, Ontario had 49,408 accidents in 2018, while 508 people had passed away (Carsurance,2021). Attending driving school may allow insurance rates to offer discounts that vary from 10-25 percent (Thinkinsure,2020), allowing young drivers in Ontario to save thousands of dollars in their first year alone.
Below is a picture representing insurance rates from city to city
2. Certified driving school provides you with qualified driving instructors
Having a certified driving instructor allows you to learn how to navigate a vehicle properly. A qualified driving instructor can help navigate young drivers on what to do in a risky situation, allowing drivers to learn from it and never allow it to happen again. A qualified instructor can also help boost confidence into young drivers. Young drivers are very hesitant on operating a vehicle because of how foreign it is to them, having an instructor will allow drivers to remain calm, qualified instructors will move at the desired pace of the driver, not putting any stress or pressure on the driver. Qualified instructors will allow new drivers to gain momentum and be confident when it comes to speed, merging lanes and knowing how to park. Driving Instructors will also give you pointers throughout your sessions, guiding you on what examiners will look out for, how to angle yourself in front of your examiner [how many times you should look at each mirror].
Qualified driving instructors are also more knowledgeable and understand trends a lot quicker than parents or siblings would, this is due to the driving test changing all the time. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, thousands of drivers had their test backlogged because of multiple lockdowns, causing Ontario to redesign a new driving test for G2 and G’s in order to get more tests done in while the Omicron variant was surging. Ontario had decided to remove three-point turn and parallel parking for the G-test to fit more drivers in, making the test from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. Though drivers knew Ontario had decided to implement new measures, driving schools were quick to point out that scoring format would be different, going from 30 mistakes to 15 mistakes, making the test slightly more difficult since drivers have room for less errors.
3. Certified driving schools can reduce the overall wait duration for drivers who want to obtain their G2
The rule in Ontario is that once you obtain your learners permit [G1], you must wait one full year before you decide to take your drivers test [G2]. One of the perks of having a certified driving school is that schools offer a certified course which allows drivers to understand what the rules are, tips on passing the G2 exam, which signs to be extra cautious of, and when to navigate your way out of a tough spot like braking when going down the hill or being super slow upon inclement weather like snow or rain. Without a certified driving school, drivers must wait one full year In order to pass their driving test, having completed a certified driving school course will allow drivers to have their time reduced from one year to eight months, allowing the process to be easier and quicker.
The blog itself does not describe every single advantage driving schools will have to offer, this was just a short overview of why new drivers should look to entertain certified driving schools in hope of gaining new skill, learning the fundamentals of driving so they don’t contribute to the on-going statistics of collisions within the GTA. It is with great hope that any new driver who should stumble upon this blog would take great advantage of going to driving school and capitalize on any of the points listed above.
