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 SAAQ service point at 6900 Décarie Boulevard 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 new SAAQ site, but in vain. So she came to the office in person.
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.
Arriving at 7:20 a.m., Carlito Cabrales is on his third attempt to renew his registration at this service point. He takes his troubles patiently, like his companions in misfortune, but seems a little disillusioned. 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 SAAQ office opened, an employee warned customers that those who had not had a number could not obtain services and that it was worth better they come back another day. ” One does what one can. »
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 SAAQclic platform to improve its online service offering. Except that to transfer data to the new system, the SAAQ had to operate in slow motion between January 26 and 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 SAAQ is therefore in catch-up mode. 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 is going to be increased use of online services,” says -he.
Gino Desrosiers acknowledges that the shift to digital has had some 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 early days, we detected anomalies on the portal which we corrected. »
Mr. Desrosiers believes that it will take a few weeks for the SAAQ to make up for the delay caused by the transitional period. “Perhaps in April, we will have caught up quite a bit. The more people will use online services, the faster we will catch up. »