Vehicle for Hire test “answer books” for sale on Facebook Marketplace
Screengrab of advertisement on Facebook Marketplace. Image: Facebook
“No need to do the training, pay AFTER receiving Toronto Training PTC!”
–text of Facebook ad running February 13, 2023
As predicted in summer 2022, entrepreneurs have found a way to make money selling the answers to various Vehicle for Hire online training programs.
Posted February 13 to Facebook’s Marketplace, one ad reads:
“Uber/Lyft Vehicle Inspection Safety’s for $35. No need to come in, everything is done online. Pay AFTER Receiving Safety! PTC Toronto Training is $85 through Drvrhub, no need to do the training, pay AFTER receiving Toronto Training PTC! Save over $125 with PTC and save over $50 for safety and save hours and hours of your time! Receive everything the same day! If interested please feel free to msg me here or text me.”
In 2022, Taxi News attended training sessions offered by several of the firms which were approved by Toronto to provide VFH training. With the sole exception of DriveWise, which requires students to attend their training location and work with an instructor in-person, all of the other training programs are delivered on-line.
AMB offers videoconference training with a live instructor, which was the subject of a CTV news report on January 10th. CTV aired a story which documented their reporter taking the training program, during which one student was actually driving a car while he took the training. The CTV report suggested students could also find innumerable opportunities to cheat.
In response to an inquiry on Toronto’s progress in auditing the on-line programs, Taxi News received the following information from Media Relations person Ashika Theyyil by email:
“The City continues its quality assurance program of audits of all accredited vehicle-for-hire driver training programs to ensure that they continue to meet the City’s requirements. If the City notes issues during these audits, these findings are shared with the training provider so that they can be addressed.
From July – September 2022, the City audited the in-class and online trainings offered by AMB Driving School. Some issues and concerns were noted with the in-class and online assessments. The training provider has addressed the issues identified and follow-up audits have found that the in-class and online assessments were improved.
The driver training program offered by DRVR Hub was suspended by the City from July 8 to August 21, 2022 after an audit identified a number of concerns that threatened the integrity of the program. The training provider addressed the concerns and issues raised from the City’s audit. The training was then amended to include an online course and in-person examination. This is aligned with the additional mandatory criteria, which now requires all driver training programs to include live attendance or online interaction with instructors or evaluators in real time.
In August 2022, the City audited the training offered by Alertdriving and in September 2022, the trainings offered by Parachute and Drive Pro were audited. A few areas of improvements were noted and shared with the training providers.”
