The digital shift undertaken by the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) is experiencing failures. Since February 20, motorists, unable to obtain services online, end up going in person to SAAQ service outlets, where their patience is sorely tested.
At the point of service at 6900 boulevard Décarie, in Côte-Saint-Luc, the queue is long. “I arrived at 7 a.m. I was the sixth person, ”says Oldooz Keshavarzi, crossed Wednesday in the corridor adjacent to the office of an agent of the SAAQ. She explains that she tried to register online on the Society’s new site, but was unsuccessful because the site could not confirm her registration. So she came to the office in person. As she has to settle the files of two cars, she had to take four days off in ten days.
Three hours after his arrival, Mr.me Keshavarzi is now second in line, as only four people were able to have their cases processed by the only employee on duty on Wednesday. “There’s no way those at the end of the line can be served today,” she said, glancing at the thirty or so people waiting behind her.
” One does what one can “
Arriving at 7:20 a.m., Carlito Cabrales is on his third attempt to renew his registration at this point of service. He takes his illness patiently, just like his companions in misfortune, but he does not hide his exasperation.
Last in the line that is not moving forward, Rahima Hassan is determined to wait, even if it means spending the day in the corridor of the small shopping center so that she too can renew her registration.
Lines are also getting longer at other SAAQ service outlets. At Place Dupuis, around 8:50 a.m. Wednesday, 20 minutes after the office opened, an employee warned customers that those who had not had a number could not obtain services and that it was better for them to come back another day. ” One does what one can. »
In front of the SAAQ office on rue Saint-Jacques, about thirty people are crawling outside. The day is rather mild, but Waqas Mahmood, who has been waiting for over an hour, is shivering. “I went to the Décarie Boulevard office, but the line was so long that I came here. I do not have a choice. I have two days left to renew my registration,” he explains.
Similar scenes have been reported in many other SAAQ offices, in Saint-Léonard and Longueuil, in particular.
New portal
The situation at the various service points visited by The duty is closely linked to the digital shift undertaken by the SAAQ. On February 20, it launched a new platform, SAAQclic, in order to improve its offer of online services. Except that to transfer data to the new system, it had to operate in slow motion from January 26 to February 19.
“During this period, we made about 20,000 manual transactions. But if we compare with the same period last year, it was some 400,000 transactions in service outlets that had been made,” explains Gino Desrosiers, public relations officer at the SAAQ.
The Company is therefore making a catch-up. Mr. Desrosiers points out that about half of the transactions carried out recently in the service centers could have been carried out online. “We understand that not everyone is comfortable with online services, but one of the solutions to reducing queues will be increased use of online services. »
There’s no way those at the end of the line can be served.
Gino Desrosiers recognizes that the digital shift has had sand in the gears in the first week, both in service centers and online, on the new platform. “Our employees had to work with new tools,” he says. In the first days, we had detected anomalies on the portal, which we corrected. »
The publicist believes that it will take a few weeks for the SAAQ to catch up with the delay caused by the transitional period. “Perhaps in April, we will have caught up quite a bit. »
Since February 20, the SAAQ has still recorded 710,000 transactions, both online and at its points of service, he said.
As for making appointments — which, in many cases, are only available in April — Mr. Desrosiers suggests that road users try their luck regularly, because additional time slots could be available. added to the portal in the coming weeks.
Regarding the lack of staff at the Décarie Boulevard office, Gino Desrosiers specifies that it is a center managed by an agent and that, like other employers, the SAAQ and its agents must deal with recruitment difficulties. of staff. “We stretched our hours of service, and several centers operated on Saturdays. But of course it takes staff. Whether it’s us or our agents, we’re all dealing with the labor shortage. »