Who makes all the money from the RDP and interlock?

Reporters and clients often ask us who makes all the money from the RDP and interlock, and the answer is that we don’t know. The IRP scheme brings in money to the Government and the tow truck companies are making huge profits. Of course, the Government also makes money on the HST for these “services.” But it’s the Responsible Driver Program and the ignition interlock that most concerns us. The reason is that these are sole-source providers granted their privileged position by the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles.

The numbers are off the charts. At roughly $900 per person, assuming everyone went through the one-day class, the sole-source provider, i.e. Stroh, would put more than $31 million dollars in the bank once all of the 35,000 people take their RDP course. They’re making oodles of money with this gig.

Unlike a university course, the material never changes, the instruction doesn’t change and you don’t need a PhD. to be in charge of the RDP class. As well, unlike a university, they don’t pay for research or labs, there are no assignments to correct, and none of the expenses associated with guiding students through years of study. The RDP costs each student/victim over $100 per hour of the class.

A sessional instructor with a PhD. at UBC earns about $155 per lecture hour. That is for each hour of standing in front of the classroom. Of course, UBC instructors must plan their own course, prepare for each class and grade papers. So for each hour they stand in front of the class they work at least 6 hours. This cost is typically split over 30-45 students.

If you have 20 students in an 8-hour RDP class, Stroh is billing approximately $2,250 per lecture hour. With no prep time, because the course is identical, and no grading of multiple assignments, and no university grounds or research facilities, this company must be pulling in fantastic profits.

There’s nothing that can make you rich like a Government mandated monopoly. Holy cow. $31 million and it’s almost pure profit.

Guardian Interlock has a Superintendent granted monopoly in British Columbia. That’s also a good gig.

In most of the U.S. there are companies competing to provide interlock devices. This keeps the prices down. In British Columbia the Government gave exclusive rights to one company.

We hear from our clients about how they were mocked by the technicians at Guardian, suggesting to people that they should encourage their friends to drive drunk as well as some pretty disturbing sexist comments. I guess you can get away with this, and with gouging customers if you have a monopoly.

As you probably know, we investigate a lot to do with the IRP scheme, but we’ve never gone deep into figuring our what’s behind the Stroh and Guardian Interlock deals. We’re made Freedom of Information requests for the agreements, but so far the Government is successfully stalling and impeding our efforts. But that’s gonna change.

A napkin calculation says to us that between $50 and $80 million has been directed from the pockets of British Columbians to these monopoly providers. Ultimately the taxpayers may be on the hook for it. What we want to know is how is it that the people of British Columbia were so badly screwed, who were the winners and how did this happen?

Right now there’s a single mom in Kelowna with a perfect driving record who can’t afford to properly dress her children because she needs to pay for the interlock. Another parent in North Vancouver had no choice but to cancel Christmas because they had to pay for the Responsible Driving Program. Meanwhile a few people have been lining their pockets and paying cash to buy Bentleys because the Government granted them a sole-source monopoly.

Some reporters are starting to look at this story. We’re going to help them because we also want to know who makes all the money from the RDP and interlock.