DriveWise named “Best Training Supplier”
Clients offer congratulations on Canadian Occupational Safety Award
Barrie’s DriveWise/KnowledgeSurge has been named the best supplier for driver training in the 2026 Canadian Occupational Safety Readers’ Choice Awards.
DriveWise president Lesley de Repentigny told Taxi News that the award came as a surprise to everyone on her team: “Apparently, one of our clients nominated us. We were informed that we won our category on September 16th. It has been a pretty exciting week for everyone here, we are still absorbing the news!”
The award was voted on by the safety professionals who use these solutions every day, a fact which is consistent with the incredibly high level of satisfaction DriveWise clients have expressed to Taxi News and through industry referrals (see testimonials, below).
DriveWise partners with almost 100 organizations including Rogers, Irving Oil, Canada’s armed forces, Toronto Police, and numerous EMS providers, municipal services, commercial trucking companies and corporate fleets to train their drivers across Canada. It has been developing industry-specific training programs since 2004. President Lesley DeRepetigny is a veteran of Canada’s armed forces; her training career was launched training on flight simulator technology in the early 1990s.
Because the firm serves large national organizations which run fleets of vehicles across Canada, the secret to DriveWise’s success has been standardized training and a consistent curriculum, de Repentigny says.
“Rogers Communications can be sure when they send someone for training, the driver trained in Vancouver will get precisely the same training program Rogers approved for Ontario. Management knows exactly what is covered in the training, and that a graduate from a DriveWise program can be qualified to work in any location where they are needed.”
Transportation industry stalwarts including Beck Taxi, Coventry Connections, the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario and Baird MacGregor Insurance Brokers are all clients of DriveWise and told Taxi News they are delighted to see the team at DriveWise win the “Best Supplier” award from Canadian Occupational Safety.
“An outstanding driver education partner” says Baird MacGregor’s Philomena Comerford
“Baird MacGregor Insurance Brokers has partnered with DriveWise for the past two decades working in unison to improve the risk profile of the transportation clients we serve,” says Philomena Comerford, CEO of Baird MacGregor Insurance Brokers LP.
“DriveWise has been an outstanding driver education partner whose state-of-the-art driver simulation technology and in-class defensive driver training programs have meaningfully improved driver behaviour across all our participating transportation fleets who we insure.
“On behalf of the entire Baird MacGregor team and the clients we serve, we send our heartfelt congratulations to DriveWise for having achieved the Canadian Occupational Safety Reader’s Choice 2026 Award earning top honours for Safe Driving Training: a well-deserved recognition of their top-notch training.”
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“DriveWise fully deserves this award” says Kristine Hubbard
Kristine Hubbard, Operations Manager of Beck Taxi in Toronto says “Any driver who wants to drive for Beck must have completed Drivewise’s program which is in-person, with an instructor and includes simulator training,” Hubbard says.
“We began requiring our drivers take Drivewise’s Vehicle for Hire training program because Baird MacGregor Insurance required it anyway, before Toronto drastically reduced its training standard. Once Toronto went down the road of 4-hour, online programs we decided to require our drivers complete the Drivewise program as a condition of driving for Beck.
“Congratulations to Lesley and her team. They fully deserve this award.”
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“An awesome compliment, richly deserved ” says Philip Fletcher, TTSAO
Philip Fletcher, President of the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario (where de Repentigny also sits on the Board of Directors) says “it is a real testament to the organization that so many of their paying customers are happy to say, ‘We’re so happy they won this award.’ That is an awesome compliment, richly deserved.
“In fact, we recently changed over our instructor certification to DriveWise/Knowledge Search. Lesley is in charge of that for us, too: as we updated our entire system of training and certifying the Master trainers who certify everyone else, I we were very happy to be able to place our trust in Drivewise and Knowledge Search. She developed the Master certification course for us, so that we could have a school to train the Masters who can then train their own instructors. But the Master is crucially important, very detailed, instrumental for success, and she did an excellent job.”
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“DriveWise is a trusted supplier”: Way
Marc Andre Way, CEO of Coventry Connections, says “DriveWise is certainly a trusted supplier to Coventry, an essential part of our training program.
“In fact, we have just expanded our program to include even more elements of DriveWise’s package. We are happy to offer our sincerest congratulations on this well-deserved award. DriveWise makes Canada a safer place to be out on the roads.”
