Money changed hands and applicants were driving off with commercial driver’s licenses in Ontario. There were whispers for a while about this dirty little secret that people knew about. And the whispers kept getting louder.

Finally, a Ministry of Transportation investigation led to the Ontario Provincial Police arresting and charging eight individuals for fraudulent activities linked to commercial driver examinations in Kingston, Ont., and the Greater Toronto Area. The suspects include five DriveTest examiners and three driving school instructors.

The OPP named the accused, but neither the police nor the MTO provided additional information.

Multiple credible sources in the province’s driving school industry, who requested anonymity, have helped shed light on the situation.

Apparently, a “guaranteed pass” cost between $2,000 and $5,000, which crooked schools paid driving examiners. This was in addition to the money a driving student paid for MELT, or mandatory entry-level training, that may or may not have been administered by a driving school.

Schools offering package deal

Some driving schools were also offering a package deal that included MELT training and a guaranteed pass.

Two of the three accused driving instructors own truck training schools in Brampton, Ont. One has shut down, while the other still appears to be training future truck drivers who will share the road with you.

A source who owns and operates a truck driving school in Ontario said he was approached by one of the accused examiners via a third party. The asking rate for a guaranteed pass was $2,000. The source told the middleman to leave immediately, and that was the end of the conversation. The same suspect worked at a couple of DriveTest centers before being arrested.

Another DriveTest examiner who has been charged used to allow test applicants 20 minutes to back the vehicle — for a fee. The usual time allowed is 10 minutes.

This guy used to ask students to inform their driving school owners who were not part of his fraudulent nexus to talk to him to ensure successful tests.

Name the crooked schools

The public needs to know what is happening, and the MTO needs to share more information instead of issuing terse statements.

Let’s start by naming schools to which the accused are affiliated. Let us know if those schools have been shut down. How long has this been going on for?

As for the accused examiners, how long have they been working at DriveTest centers? Were they shunted around to another location when the whispers got louder? Were other staff at the testing centers involved as well?

And why the silence from Serco Canada, which operates the DriveTest exam centers in the province? The silence is deafening. Burying your head in the sand only affects your credibility.

Countless lives are at stake

Last year, the MTO suspended some truck drivers’ commercial driving licenses for “dishonesty during the Class A testing and/or training processes.” They were asked to retest for their A/Z licenses.

The recent arrests and charges seem to be a follow-up to that investigative process.

One can only guess how many people are operating commercial vehicles where you live — in Ontario, across Canada and in North America — by paying money and without passing a road test.

Their “guaranteed pass” is a failure of the system. Countless lives are at stake. So why the secrecy? Are politicians and bureaucrats waiting for another Humboldt tragedy to loosen their grip on information that educates the public on where to seek instruction and which so-called truck driving training institutions to avoid?

Put body cams on examiners for transparency

Also, it would be nice to know what steps have been put in place to prevent such fraud from taking place in the future.

I have a couple of suggestions. Put body cameras on truck driving test examiners so that there can be no dispute as to what occurred. Make the footage available to driving schools for a fee. Trucking companies are already putting driver-facing dash cameras in their trucks in addition to road-facing cameras, so don’t be shy.

Also, get a third party to examine cases when complaints are made, either by the test applicant, school or examiner.

Transparency helps build credibility. Secrecy leads to additional questions. It’s time to shine a bright light on dirty deeds.