'Just ridiculous': Teens line up to snag limited spots in Manitoba driver's education summer program
Condensed 5-week version of regular 12-week course will be offered in July and August
A surge in demand for a provincial driver's education program drove teens and their parents to line up outside Manitoba Public Insurance offices on Wednesday to get one of the limited spots.
The line at the MPI location at the corner of Bison Drive and Barnes Street started forming at 5 a.m. and was about 120 people deep by 7:15 a.m.
In Brandon, the lineup outside Guild Insurance Group on Victoria Avenue started around 8 p.m. Tuesday and had reached 40 by Wednesday morning.
Registration didn't start until 8 a.m. The courses were sold out by 10:30 a.m. provincewide.
"I didn't believe that getting into this driver's ed is this, what I call it, stressful. It's just ridiculous. I couldn't believe it," said Andrew Bawa, who was in the Bison Drive lineup with his 15-year-old daughter, Elswidih.
She will turn 16 soon and has friends already driving, while others are wrapping up Driver Z classes that started earlier in the year. She expected it to be busy but was determined to get a spot, and arrived at 6:15 a.m.
"It'll be nice to drive, not having to ask your parents to take you everywhere," she said.
MPI staff went down the line handing out numbers to confirm people's spots in line. When those numbers ran out, there were some tears.
"I can't just imagine you're here, thinking that you'll get in, and then they tell you 'Sorry,'" Andrew Bawa said. "Some of these kids were crying. I know what that means for your child."
He's not sure what MPI should do, but suggested the insurer improve the system somehow so young kids don't need to be so stressed.
"I don't think it should be this difficult."
MPI announced earlier this month that it would again be offering a condensed version of its Driver Z course this summer.
Spokesperson Tara Seel said there were 384 available spots in Winnipeg and 204 spots across the rest of the province.
That total of 588 is up from past years, when it was 312.
The spots are limited because there is a shortage of Driver Z trainers, Seel said.
"It's not us not wanting to offer the course more. We would offer as much as we could," she said.
MPI was able to bump up the offerings this summer because it recruited nearly 30 new instructors, but that's still not enough.
"We're always looking. If anybody is interested in being a driving instructor, please reach out to MPI. We're constantly recruiting," said Seel.
"We recognize how frustrating it must be for parents. We apologize. We don't want to see people going through that."
Tejal Makwana and her son also lined up at the Bison Drive office, knowing how busy it would be. Like Bawa, she's not sure how MPI could make the process better, other than perhaps opening more registration locations.
If it was online, it would likely cause problems with the system pretty quickly, she said.
"Just look at the people willing to stand in line. It's going to crash at 8 a.m., and that's another headache for them to manage," Makwana said.
In Brandon, Ty Aldcroft and buddies Brayson Gerdis and Jonah Lepishak, all 15, camped out starting at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday.
"Twelve hours is a long wait," Aldcroft said, but he didn't want to risk not locking up a spot. "I probably wouldn't get in. Chances are slim. It's worth it, I think."
Lindsay Dietrich arrived with her son around 9:30 p.m. and settled in front of Guild Insurance — conveniently located next to a Tim Hortons.
"Blankets and lawn chair, that's all we [brought]. Didn't even need to worry about snacks, 'cause restaurant's right beside us, which was awesome," she said.
She has two older daughters and neither had to wait in line.
"It's crazy. I also have a nine-year-old at home, so I'm hoping they fix this before we have to go back and do this again."
Courses sold out quickly
As for those trying to get some of the coveted spots, MPI's Seel said there are alternatives to camping out and standing in line.
Registering for a time slot can be done by visiting an MPI broker or calling MPI's contact centre.
"It seems like a lot of people chose the third option of going to the service centre and created some of those lineups," Seel said, but admitted many people who did try calling encountered busy signals.
To access one of the other options, people had to first go to an MPI contact centre ahead of time and create a new customer profile. That has to be done in person in order to verify a person's identity.
They could also pay for the Drive Z course at that time, so that on Wednesday, all they needed to do was pick a time slot, Seel said.
But many of those who stood in line didn't do that, so the entire procedure was slowed down by having to create customer profiles and process payments for the course before choosing a time slot.
In the meantime, those slots are being snapped up at other locations and over the phone, Seel said.
In the end, just 17 per cent of the 200-ish people in line at the Bison Drive service centre secured a course slot. The number was closer to 25 per cent for those in line at the Main Street centre in Winnipeg, said Seel, who didn't have numbers for the St. Mary's Road centre.
"Brandon sold out very quickly," where the number of summer courses had doubled to four from two last year, Seel said.
The program uses a mix of in-person and virtual classes as well as in-car training to teach students driving skills. It allows teens to start taking instruction at 15½ years old, giving them a six-month jump on the graduated licence program in Manitoba.
It's typically a 12-week course, but the condensed version will be five weeks and run in July and August, a news release from MPI said.
The condensed program will have two weeks of virtual classes followed by three weeks of in-car lessons.
The July course will take place in Arborg, Beausejour, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Winkler and Winnipeg.
In August it will be in Brandon, Steinbach, Winkler, Winnipeg and The Pas.
Students must attend all classes to complete the course.
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With files from Meaghan Ketcheson, Chelsea Kemp and Matt Humphrey