Our policies, in plain English

We need 48 hours' notice to cancel or move a booked lesson. Give us that and there's no charge at all. Reschedule through your Calendly confirmation email, text 416-402-4492, or just call.

Cancel with less than 48 hours' notice and the lesson is charged at $27.50 + HST. The same applies if you don't show up. That isn't us being difficult. When a lesson is booked, that hour is blocked off and another student who wanted it couldn't have it. Forty-eight hours is usually enough time to fill the slot. A few hours isn't.

On the day, the instructor waits 15 minutes at the pickup address. After that the lesson counts as a no-show. If you're running late, a quick text usually sorts it out. We'd much rather shorten a lesson than cancel it.

Things go wrong in real life. If something genuinely unavoidable comes up, an illness, a family emergency, a car accident, call us. We've waived this fee before and we'll do it again. It exists to stop the pattern, not to punish one bad week.

You're never charged when the cancellation is ours. If the instructor is sick, the car is in the shop, or the roads aren't safe, we'll contact you as early as we can and put the lesson back on the calendar at a time that works for you.

Weather. We teach in Wasaga Beach and Collingwood, so winter driving is part of the job. A bit of snow is a lesson, not a cancellation. Learning to handle a slushy Mosley Street in February is worth more than another dry summer drive. What we do cancel for is genuinely unsafe conditions: a snow squall warning, freezing rain, or roads the plows haven't reached yet. That call is the instructor's to make, and it's always free to move.

The full Beginner Driver Education course is $649 + HST and covers all 40 MTO-required hours: 30 hours online (20 hours of theory plus 10 hours of home study) and 10 hours of in-car instruction.

Before your online theory is activated, you can withdraw and get back what you have paid, less a $50 + HST administration fee.

Once your online theory account is created and released to you, the course fee is non-refundable. This is the part people are usually surprised by, so here's the reason: the online course licence is purchased in your name the moment your account is activated. We pay for it up front, it can't be cancelled, and it can't be transferred to another student. That cost is gone whether you finish the course or not.

Unused in-car hours stay on your file until your course deadline. Ontario requires the in-car part of BDE to be finished within 1 year of starting your online theory, so hours not used by then can't be used for the BDE course.

Payment plans. You can start the BDE course for $150 (HST included) and pay the rest in 3 or 4 payments, due before set in-car lessons. There's no interest and no extra fees, and the $150 is non-refundable once your online theory is activated. Full details are on the BDE course page. If a payment is going to be late, tell us before it's due rather than after. We can almost always work something out. Your MTO certification is submitted once the course is paid in full and all 40 hours are complete.

Renting our car for your road test is $149 + HST at the Collingwood DriveTest Centre and $220 + HST at other Ontario DriveTest locations. That includes pickup, a warm-up drive before the examiner gets in, and the car and instructor waiting for you afterwards.

RightSite BDE students get the car at the Collingwood DriveTest Centre for $100 flat, HST included, for one road test. You can also book G2 and G driving lessons at $50 + HST per hour.

Same 48-hour rule as lessons: cancel or move inside 48 hours and half the fee is charged. If DriveTest cancels your test, examiner shortage, weather closure, a rescheduled appointment, there's no charge at all. Send us the notice and we'll move your booking to the new date.

Two things we can't do anything about, so please check them before test day:

• You need to bring your own valid Ontario licence. We can't sit the test for you and DriveTest won't accept a photocopy.
• You need to have actually booked the road test with DriveTest. Renting our car doesn't book your test. Those are two separate things, and this catches people out more often than you'd think.

We'll turn down a road test rental if we've never driven with you and you can't demonstrate basic control of the vehicle on the warm-up drive. It's not about the money. Putting someone into a test they're clearly not ready for wastes their fee and their time, and it isn't safe. If that happens we'll refund the rental in full and talk to you about a lesson instead.

Bring your licence. Every lesson, no exceptions. A G1 or G2 driver without their licence on them can't legally be behind the wheel, so a forgotten licence means a cancelled lesson at short notice.

Pickup and drop-off are included. Tell us your address when you book and we'll confirm the pickup with you.

Lesson length. A standard lesson is one hour, and that hour starts when we pick you up. Travel time to a quieter road is part of the lesson. It's where a lot of the useful conversation happens.

No drugs or alcohol. Obvious, but it needs saying. If an instructor believes a student is impaired, the lesson ends immediately, it's charged in full, and we'll talk about what happens next.

Under 18? A parent or guardian needs to sign the enrollment form. You'll find it on the BDE enrollment page or the individual lesson page.

Call 416-402-4492 or email rightsitedrivers@gmail.com and we'll deal with it directly. Most problems are a misunderstanding about scheduling and take about five minutes to sort out.

If you're not happy with how we've handled something, you can contact the Ministry of Transportation's Beginner Driver Education office at driver.education@ontario.ca. The Ministry approves and audits every BDE course provider in Ontario, including us. We'd rather you came to us first, but you're entitled to do either.

How we handle your personal information is covered separately in our privacy policy. These policies may be updated from time to time; the terms in effect on the day you book are the ones that apply to that booking.