Smart Start vs ALCOLOCK: Ontario Providers Compared
Ontario approves two ignition interlock providers. What is actually published about pricing and service locations, and what to ask before you sign a lease.
Ontario interlock program rules · 10 September 2026 · 5 min read
Driving someone else’s car with an “I” condition
It is the most-asked question in the whole programme, and the answer has an expensive second half that catches out whoever lent you the keys.
The rule, in one sentence
An “I” condition means you may drive only a vehicle fitted with an approved ignition interlock. Not a partner’s car, not a rental, not a work van, not “just to the shop”. The condition attaches to you, and it does not care whose vehicle it is.
What it costs to get this wrong
- Fines of $200 to $1,000 for a passenger vehicle, and up to $20,000 for a commercial one.
- Vehicle impoundment of 45, 90 or 180 days for a first, second or third occurrence in the Criminal Code stream, and 7 days in the administrative stream.
- A conviction for driving without the device is a programme violation, adding six months to the condition for a first, eighteen for a second.
The part that affects someone other than you
Ontario can charge a vehicle owner who knowingly lets a person with an “I” condition drive their vehicle. Borrowing a car is not a favour that costs the lender nothing, and it is worth saying out loud to whoever is offering, because most people have no idea.
The mirror image nobody expects
It runs both ways. A car with a device and a licence without an “I” is also out of order at a DriveTest road test. The vehicle and the conditions printed on the licence have to match each other exactly, in both directions.
Where this bites hardest: the road test
The condition does not pause for a DriveTest appointment, and DriveTest does not supply vehicles. Their published position is that the car may be owned, borrowed or rented — it simply has to match your licence. That leaves three doors, and all three are usually shut: rental counters do not fit interlocks, the approved providers lease devices rather than cars, and now you know why asking a relative is a bigger favour than it sounds.
That gap is the whole reason you can rent a car with an interlock for a road test at all.
What you can do
- Put the device on the car you actually drive. Obvious, but people install on a second vehicle to save money and then find themselves stuck.
- Tell your employer early if driving is part of the job. A work van is a vehicle like any other, and the commercial fine ceiling is twenty times higher.
- Do not plan around a borrowed car. Not for the test, not for the year.
How the Ontario ignition interlock program works covers the condition end to end.
Questions
Questions about this
What if it is an emergency?
There is no emergency exception written into the condition, and Ontario publishes no hardship or restricted-permit route around an “I”. Worth knowing before you are deciding in the moment.
Can I drive a company vehicle if my employer agrees?
Only if it has an approved device fitted. Your employer agreeing changes nothing, and an employer who knowingly permits it can be charged as the vehicle owner. Fines reach $20,000 for a commercial vehicle.
Same category
More on ontario interlock program rules
Availability & pricing
If a road test is part of this
We rent an interlock-equipped car for a G2 or G road test and teach the device in ten hours of in-car training. Send the date and we will quote it in writing.
- Answered the same day, Monday to Saturday
- A written figure with everything included
- If you don’t need a road test, we’ll tell you that instead
Phone is faster. Someone answers Monday to Saturday, evenings included.