The part after the paperwork

Life after a DUI in Canada: three years off the road is long

Drivers who have been suspended for years often arrive assuming the device is the problem. It usually is not. The manoeuvres go first — parallel parking, three-point turns, the mirror discipline examiners score hardest — and confidence goes with them.

That is not a character flaw and it is extremely common. It is also fixable with hours behind the wheel, which is exactly what refresher lessons are for.

The device becomes routine faster than you expect

For the first fortnight it is the main character in every journey. After that it is a thing you do before starting the car, like a seatbelt. The people who struggle longest are usually those who never practised the blow and are still failing samples on technique months in.

Getting to work in the meantime

There is no work exemption from an Ontario suspension and no permit that gets round it. What there is, is time to plan: transit routes, a carpool, a bike for the shoulder seasons, or a conversation with an employer that is better had early than after a roadside stop. Driving without the required device carries fines of $200 to $1,000 for a passenger vehicle and impoundment on top.

What we will not ask you

Not the charge, not the date, not the reading. It has no bearing on which car you need or when an instructor is free, so it is not on our form and it does not come up on the phone.

The car carries no driving-school signage. No roof sign, nothing on the doors. Nobody at the DriveTest centre learns anything about you from the vehicle you arrive in, and that is deliberate.

Read the long-form version in getting your licence back, in order. If a road test is part of your route back, we cover interlock car rental for a G2 or G road test and the ten-hour interlock training course. Related reading: DUI licence suspension in Ontario and using an ignition interlock device, or browse every Ontario DUI licence recovery article.