On March 31, 2025, Ontario's paper-based Motor Vehicle Inspection Station (MVIS) program came to an end. It was replaced by DriveON, the province's digital vehicle inspection program.
Most drivers have never heard of either name, and only encounter the change when they go to get a safety certificate and notice the shop is calling itself something different. Here is what it means.
What DriveON is
DriveON is the system Ontario now uses to administer vehicle safety inspections and heavy-duty emissions testing. The province partnered with a technology provider to build a digital platform connecting the vehicle, the technician and the Ministry of Transportation.
Under the old MVIS program, an inspection was recorded on a paper form. The technician performed the inspection, filled out the certificate, and that piece of paper was the record.
Under DriveON, the inspection is submitted electronically to the province. Measurements and documentation go into the provincial system, and the certificate is issued digitally.
What actually changed
Licensed shops are now Vehicle Inspection Centres
The formal name changed. Shops licensed to perform these inspections are now Vehicle Inspection Centres, not Motor Vehicle Inspection Stations.
In practice everyone — us included — still says "MVIS," the way people still say "Drive Clean" a decade after that program ended. If a shop describes itself either way, that is not a red flag. What matters is whether it is currently licensed.
Certificates are digital
A licensed centre can now provide your Safety Standards Certificate by email once the vehicle passes, rather than only as a paper form.
This is genuinely useful in a private sale. A digital certificate tied to the provincial system is much harder to forge than a paper one, and it does not get lost between the sale and your ServiceOntario appointment.
Results are auditable
Because inspections are submitted electronically, the province has a record of what was measured. A shop cannot quietly skip a step and write down a plausible-looking number, because the digital submission is the record.
For an honest shop this changes very little — we were already measuring and recording. For the customer it is a meaningful protection: the certificate you are handed is backed by a provincial record rather than by one person's signature.
It is harder to buy a fake safety
This was a real problem under the paper system. Certificates were sold for vehicles that were never properly inspected — sometimes never seen. A buyer would take delivery of a "certified" car that turned out to have serious defects, and by then the paper trail was worthless.
Digital records tied to a licensed centre make that substantially harder.
What did not change
The inspection standard itself. Your vehicle is measured against the same Passenger/Light-Duty Vehicle Inspection Standard, with the same limits. Tread depth is still 2 mm. Bonded brake friction material still fails below 1.6 mm. A crack in the wiper-swept area still fails over 50 mm. Nothing got easier or harder to pass.
Validity. A Safety Standards Certificate is still valid for 36 calendar days from the inspection date.
When you need one. Still required for transferring a used vehicle to a new owner other than a spouse, registering a vehicle from another jurisdiction, registering a rebuilt vehicle, and changing a vehicle from unfit to fit.
Emissions testing for passenger vehicles. Still not required. Drive Clean ended for passenger vehicles on April 1, 2019, and DriveON did not bring it back. Heavy-duty diesel commercial vehicles have separate emissions requirements under DriveON; cars and light trucks do not.
How to confirm a shop is licensed
Ask. A licensed centre will tell you plainly, and can show you.
Ontario maintains a DriveON portal where you can find licensed facilities, and runs a toll-free contact centre at 1-833-420-2103 to confirm a facility.
Two things worth being cautious about:
- A shop that offers to "get you a safety" through someone else. A certificate has to come from the centre that performed the inspection.
- A price dramatically below everyone else in town, quoted without seeing the vehicle. The standard requires wheels off and measurements recorded. That takes real time, and a price that cannot cover that time suggests the work is not being done.
A certificate issued improperly can be revoked — and the person left holding an unregisterable vehicle is you, not the shop.
Structural inspections are a separate licence
Worth knowing if you are buying a rebuilt vehicle: a vehicle carrying a rebuilt brand needs a structural inspection at a centre licensed specifically for that more in-depth work, on top of a Safety Standards Certificate.
Not every licensed Vehicle Inspection Centre holds that additional licence. Confirm before booking if your vehicle is branded rebuilt.
Frequently asked questions
Is MVIS still a thing? The MVIS program ended on March 31, 2025 and was replaced by DriveON. The term persists in conversation, and shops that were licensed under MVIS and registered for DriveON are the same shops doing the same inspections — but the program administering it is now DriveON.
Does DriveON make safety inspections more expensive? Ontario does not set inspection prices; each centre sets its own, and always has. Digital submission adds some administrative overhead but the underlying work — a full inspection against the provincial standard, wheels off, measurements recorded, road test — is what the price mostly reflects, and that has not changed.
Do I need to do anything differently as a driver? No. Book an inspection at a licensed Vehicle Inspection Centre the same way you always would. The main practical difference is that your certificate may arrive by email.
Is my safety certificate still valid for 36 days? Yes. 36 calendar days from the date of inspection, unchanged.
Can I look up whether a certificate is real? Because inspections are recorded in the provincial system, certificates issued under DriveON are verifiable in a way paper ones were not. If you are buying a used vehicle and something feels off about a certificate, that is worth pursuing — start with the province's contact centre.
Looking for a licensed Vehicle Inspection Centre in Ottawa? Franco Garage has been at 70 Beech Street since 1981. Book a Safety Standards Certificate inspection or call (613) 789-2128. More answers in our complete safety inspection Q&A.