Ontario pushes cars out onto the road with bare minimum standards let alone written in an outdated act that was meant for basic cars of 1976. We have come a long way since then and so have cars and the act needs revision to protect the public.

Several interviews with MTO officers both person and by phone have both resulted in the excuses that the act is not up to date and no provisions have been made for antilock brakes. There aren’t enough enforcement officers and the act is outdated is there common response. They won’t act on a tip of misconduct such as a shop selling a standards certificate without even having the car there. They only will act on a consumers complaint about a particular vehicle leaving the “good guy ” to pass certificates out like candy on Halloween.

The yesteryear way and my suggestion for future of having real safety lanes set up by liscenced mechanics employed by the province was noted by an officer being left un named right now is a good idea and should get reinstated to give both the public and the independent garages a place to go for gray area decisions that there seem to be so many of or an interpretation of the act 611.

I had another suggestion. How about the independent garages prepare the car as they see fit and the final decision is made like a hydro inspector or building inspector. The investigation I have completed has also revealed the lack of automobile knowledge in the system. A simple question that has been asked was that anyone in the London office had ever installed a u-joint or a CV shaft when answering a question about grease being thrown from a boot onto brakes and would that be allowed during a safety. A common sense answer that could be answered by any tradesman could not be answered readily and when answered was suprisingly not able to be found in act of 1976 ( big surprise, not many front drive CVs back then but actually I could think of a few “Olds Tornado” again nobody there has worked on one nor studied design or function nor seen the reprocussions of an unsafe repair or a natural failure that could have been prevented in a safety check.

Which brings me to the annual safety check. This would be a good idea and again cars and trucks prepped by local garages and lanes run by MTO officer technicians would be appropriate. My guess is they couldn’t pay anyone enough to be on that firing line and furthermore could not hire the right talent with the right experience to be accurate. They couldn’t keep the right equipment, manuals, information, measuring devices and tools to handle all the makes that would come at them and also couldn’t shoulder the responsibility for being wrong, getting the multi page paperwork correct, having staff come in on time and deal with absenteeism, sick days, holidays, missing something or misguiding the public in a vast sea of motor vehicles or do inspections in a timely fashion not interupted by coffee breaks, lunch, labour board, meetings, sexual harrassment and misconduct charges, corruption or smoking policies and the new epedemic the text messaging thief and cell phone email checker addict. By the way they are expecting the private sector to do all this and stand a trial if wrong for sums of money inadequate for this list.

By the way a kangaroo court will find most of the garages guilty of the gray area missed items and could the garage afford to would get legal representation to speak well for them and not frustrate a judge with the poor presence of a mechanic turned businessman.

Ok now if you call them be prepared for a long wait on the phone for a simple answer, expect to be transfered around and no answer given and furthermore expect a phone call 24 hrs later with an answer on a question or not at all.

I am a local London garage and am fueled with frustration as I have condemned cars during an inspection that have literally been put on the road with new plates right before my very own eyes with a fake safety check issued at a restaraunt and the vehicle never left my premises. I have called in to complain and there is no reprocussions and no answer. I have had customers come in and tell me they could get a safety certificate on a brick wall.

What will they do?

Why now you say?

Recently in the united states a mechanic has been convicted of a manslaughter case as he said he checked brakes on a vehicle and it had an accident resulting in a death because of a brake failure later in use that day. Serious, isn’t it?

I also would like to add the drive clean programme would maybe never have had to come in as I have noted most of the unsafe vehicles on the road were the ones that also struggled in an etest. Another reason the Ministry would never take a role in the final inspections is that the misconception of a certificate being valid for transfer purposes is often misconstrued as a warranty and they couldn’t afford to waste any more tax payers dollars to lawyer up for the consumers complaints and confusion but again they expect the independant too.

My challenge is to put an MTO officer in my shop and have them on flat rate which means they eat what they kill and let’s see them condemn cars that represent there next families meal and watch that car go down the road to a counterfeiter while they stand true and let’s see if they can push all the paper and stand trials with no pay to defend themselves when they really sided on a gray area to help a client and have to try and explain it in a courtroom.

In the united states they have e test centres and the state runs them. Independents repair and state tests. Wow, what a concept.

This is also other concept. The program I see in my vision does several things:
1) Job creation as technicians move up to get government jobs
2) Technicians who can abide and make cars pass get more pay. Those that dont get out
3) People with unsafe cars get newer or new cars which helps economy
4 ) Students are trained to become technicians and the trade is more accredited thus colleges need more teachers
5) People maintain vehicles better having safer vehicles on the road safer for the highway other motorists and pedestrians