A road test is coming and your licence says “I”
The device is new, the test is soon, and the thought of a rolling retest with an examiner in the passenger seat is keeping you awake.
Ten hours · in-car · practical only
Ignition interlock training, ten hours with the device in your hands
There is no classroom. You spend the whole course in a vehicle with a live interlock, learning the technique the unit actually wants and what happens when it goes off mid-drive, which is the part that catches people out.
- Length
- 10 hrsSplit across sessions to suit you
- Classroom
- NoneEvery hour is in the vehicle
- Availability
- Eve + wkndAround a working week
- Mouthpiece
- FreshNew one every session
Who books it
Who this course is for
Three kinds of driver book it, and they want different things from it.
A device has just gone on your own car
The installer fitted it and gave you a quick walkthrough. That is rarely enough for the first cold morning or the first retest in traffic.
You have not driven in three years or more
The device is only half the problem. The manoeuvres need the same attention, and we give them equal time.
What it is not: this is not an MTO-approved Beginner Driver Education course, it does not shorten any waiting period, and it has no connection to Back on Track. Anyone telling you a ten-hour course reduces your suspension is describing something that does not exist.
The curriculum
What the ignition interlock training course covers
Built around the four things that actually go wrong, in the order people meet them.
The breath sample
Ontario’s approved devices refuse to start the engine above a preset limit of 0.02 blood alcohol concentration. Getting under that limit is usually not the problem. The problem is that the unit wants a steady hum-and-blow — a long, even exhale with a note behind it — and almost nobody produces that on a first attempt. Most people fail twice before it registers, purely on technique.
We practise until it is reliable, then practise it cold, then practise it in a hurry.
Rolling retests
MTO describes a rolling retest as being prompted to pull over and provide a breath sample while the vehicle is running, to confirm you have not been drinking since the engine started. It arrives without warning and the first one is genuinely alarming.
Miss it or fail it and the device issues a warning, records the event, and activates alarms — lights flashing, horn sounding — until you switch the ignition off. Note carefully what that does not say: the engine does not cut out. Anyone who tells you the car stops dead in traffic is wrong, and believing it makes the first retest far worse than it needs to be.
We trigger several during the course until answering one is routine.
Lockouts, false readings and Ottawa winters
Approved devices use alcohol-specific fuel-cell sensors that detect ethanol from any source. Mouthwash, some medications and yeast-containing foods can leave mouth alcohol that reads on the unit. The practical answer is unglamorous: rinse with water and wait ten to fifteen minutes before blowing.
We also cover cold-weather starts, because at −20 °C the routine changes, and this is Ottawa.
Be clear about what this does and does not mean
MTO treats a reading over 0.02 as a performance failure regardless of what caused it. Knowing about mouth alcohol is a reason to rinse and wait, not an explanation you can offer afterwards.
The road test itself
Alongside the device, the ordinary examinable material: observation and mirror discipline, parallel parking, three-point turns, lane changes, roundabouts, and the intersection habits examiners score hardest.
If your test is at Walkley or Canotek we spend hours on the streets around those centres specifically.
Scheduling
How the hours are arranged
Ten hours, split however suits you. Two long sessions, four shorter ones, or a single intensive run the day before the test — which is the most common booking, because the technique is freshest in the hands.
Evenings and weekends are available, and most clients need them. We work around a job rather than expecting you to work around us.
If you also need a car for the test itself, the two book together and the course is scheduled backwards from your DriveTest appointment. rent an interlock car for your road test
The equipment
Four things about the device that catch people out
A handset on a coiled cable, about the size of a TV remote. All four get practised in the hour before your test.
1
The mouthpiece
Disposable, and a fresh one goes on for every session and every booking.
2
The breath sample
The device won’t start the car above a 0.02 BAC preset limit, and it wants a steady hum-and-blow rather than a hard puff. Most people fail their first two attempts on technique alone.
3
Rolling retests
MTO describes it as being prompted to pull over and give a breath sample while the vehicle is running. Miss one and the device warns you, records it, and sets off lights and horn until you switch off — it does not cut the engine.
4
Lockouts, cold starts and the 60-day download
Mouthwash and some medications can leave mouth alcohol that reads; rinse with water and wait 10–15 minutes. Every 60 days you return to the provider so they can download the data and calibrate the unit.
Booking it
How the course fits around a test date
1
Tell us the date
If a road test is already booked, everything is planned backwards from it. If not, we start whenever suits you.
2
We schedule the hours
Evenings and weekends included. Most people take the bulk of it in the last week before the test.
3
Ten hours in the car
Device technique, rolling retests, lockouts and cold starts, plus the road-test manoeuvres alongside.
4
Test day
If you booked the car too, we meet you at the centre an hour early and run the warm-up in the same vehicle.
How we handle it
Nobody here needs the story
You’ll be asked for your test date, your licence class and the conditions printed on the card. That is the whole intake. We don’t ask what happened, your name goes on no windscreen, and the car carries no school signage on the doors.
Our instructors are MTO-licensed and have taken hundreds of people through this. The tone in the car is the same one you’d get renewing a passport.
Questions
About the course specifically
Is this an MTO-approved BDE course?
No. An MTO-approved Beginner Driver Education course is 40 hours — 20 classroom, 10 in-vehicle and 10 flexible — and completing one can reduce the G1-to-G2 eligibility wait by four months. Ours is ten hours, practical only, and it does not shorten any waiting period. It exists to teach the device and prepare you for the test.
Do I need all ten hours?
Not always. Someone who has been driving on a device for six months and only wants the test manoeuvres may be fine with a shorter refresher. Tell us where you are on the phone and we will say what we think you need, including if that is less than ten hours. refresher driving lessons in Ottawa
Whose device do I practise on?
Ours, fitted in our training vehicle and on our own service schedule. Nothing you do during the course touches the monitoring record on your own leased unit.
Can the course happen in my own car?
If your own car has an approved device fitted and is roadworthy and insured, yes — some people prefer to learn on the exact unit they will live with. Say so when you ask for a quote.
I have not driven in years. Is that a problem?
It is common here and it is what the course is for. We will spend proportionally more of the ten hours on the driving and less on the device, and we will tell you honestly partway through whether you need more time before booking a test.
Does the course have anything to do with Back on Track?
No. Back on Track is Ontario’s mandatory remedial programme, delivered through remedial.net, and nothing we run substitutes for any part of it or shortens it. Here is what Back on Track actually involves.
From the blog
Latest articles
How to Blow Into an Ignition Interlock Properly
Most first attempts fail on technique, not alcohol. What the device is listening for, why a hard puff does not work, and how to practise before it matters.
Using an Ignition Interlock in an Ottawa Winter
At minus twenty the handset behaves differently. Warm-up routines, where to keep the unit overnight, and why January mornings need ten extra minutes.
Availability & pricing
Tell us when you’re free.
Say whether a test date is already set and roughly when you can do the hours. We will fit the ten hours around it, evenings and weekends included, and 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.