MPI setting up new, less frenzied Driver Z registration process

Manitoba Public Insurance is changing how students sign up for its high school driver education program to prevent gridlock outside insurance offices and its service centres.

Registration for Driver Z (pronounced “driver-zed) — a mix of online, virtual and in-vehicle learning — was previously done on a first-come, first-served basis. All courses for the upcoming term opened on one day, which could create early morning lineups at insurance brokers’ offices and MPI service centres, the public insurer said in a news release Monday. Customers will now be invited to sign up during a multi-day registration window.

“This new approach to registration aims to take the stress off parents and students who were having to rush to try and get a spot on the same day as every other eligible customer in the province,” Dana Frazer, vice-president and chief operations officer at MPI, said in the release.

“We recognize that getting a driver’s licence is a rite of passage for young people, and it can also lift heavy burdens off families when an additional driver is added to the mix. We want to make Driver Z registration less intense and help our customers gain access to this valuable program in an organized, user-friendly way.”

The change will be in place for courses in the spring, and students will be assigned a multi-day registration window in January. Students who want to take Driver Z in the spring must sign up as a new MPI customer and pay for the program by Jan. 3. Emails will be sent from Jan. 4-24 notifying customers of their registration window.

Registration windows will be assigned based on the age of the student, with older students placed in the earlier windows, MPI said. General registration will be offered after the registration windows close.

Driving instructor and former MPI examiner Alexander Shannon described the prior sign-up system as a “nightmare” for young people looking to learn to drive.

Shannon, who owns Diamond Lane Driving Academy, said he’s taught more students who haven’t been able to secure a spot in MPI’s driving course and have had to pay for private lessons as a result.

“I’ve seen a lot of people… that have kind of missed the boat because they didn’t get to do that Driver Z experience, and it’s been costing them way more money, because they have to start from scratch at the driving school, rather than getting the 10 free hours of driving with MPI,” he said.

He’s hopeful the new system will get more people into MPI’s lessons.

“A lot of people just wouldn’t sign up at the end of the day because of the wait times… it is absolutely great for the students,” he said.

MPI expects more than 2,700 spots will be available in the spring term, compared to 2,300 seats in last year’s spring term.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca