An estimated 70 per cent of people who booked road tests in Clearwater in August didn’t show up.

That was the first full month that non-commercial road tests resumed in B.C., after being postponed for four months.

Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell he expects the percentage of no-shows will be similar for September. He says this has led to locals having to wait months to take road tests through ICBC.

“And if you’re no-show, then the driver instructor, or tester, sits around and does nothing. But it also, with a limited number of appointments, limits access to locals… Even though they’re qualified to take those tests right now,” he says.

“The other part of that is, what’s wrong with the system, that we don’t have a check-back system like you do with your dentist office to make sure that you’re coming to your appointment. There is no system like that currently to allow us to verify that people are actually going to show up for these very valuable and very wanted appointments.”

Blackwell says it’s his understanding a backlog caused by COVID-19 has led to many people from the Lower Mainland booking road tests in other regions of B.C.

He  suggests you should only be able to book a road test in the area you live in, as opposed to anywhere in the province.

“The Thompson-Nicola Region, if you live in that you can book a test at any community around the area. That would seem a little more reasonable than spreading it out province-wide. I’ve heard examples of people booking tests in places like Nelson and Revelstoke from Vancouver,” he says.

“The reality that they’re actually going to show up seems very slim to begin with, so I think we need a more reasonable model.”