By: G. Ray Gompf, CD
The last few years in trucking have been trying to say the least. Old hands have given up trucking because of the safety statistics and frankly, they simply don’t want to end up a statistic. The on-road incident rate has gone from possibly 3,000 per year across the nation while around 2% were the fault of the truck driver and increased to ten times that of the entire nation to just the OPP patrolled highways in Ontario. Over 30,000 wrecks in Ontario alone simply terrifies enough people to quit the business.
To start a piece on freight rates and stability by quoting wreck statistics may seem a little incongruent but it’s a big part of the story. For decades, the industry has complained there was a driver shortage, so the government invited foreign workers to come to Canada and do jobs that Canadians weren’t available, or willing, to do. This opened doors for those with evil intentions to exploit the industry. It is estimated that 15% or more of truck drivers today in Canada are operating under some sort of indentured servitude arrangement in which they’re not being paid for their efforts. Subsequently, the owners of these trucking companies, usually companies with ten or less trucks, and too often with more than one CVOR, so that when they get enough violations to cancel their CVOR, they simply convert operations to another CVOR with no violations possibly with different members of their board of directors. But make no mistake this is standard operating procedure for these rouges.
These small companies are undercutting sustainable rates and staying quite busy because their labour costs are next to zero. These same companies are free and loose with maintenance, keeping operating costs way down. They have discovered ways to manipulate digital logging mechanisms to run trucks 24/7 and appear at first look to be legal. The other area in which costs are cut is training. The ability of these indentured servants is so marginal that to use the term undertrained is an over statement.
These companies that are as close to illegal as possible compete then with other small companies that follow the rules to the letter but can’t come close to operating profitably. The system is flawed, in more ways than one.
The industry hasn’t hit that point at which recovery isn’t possible, but it is going to take a great deal of effort by the Federal government to correct the immigration policy, on the part of provincial governments to ensure that driver testing is done properly and free of bribery. Training establishments must be forced to produce qualified and skilled drivers, with no shortcuts.
The PTTAC is well on the way to organizing the Truck Trainers to only offer a single training syllabus across the country. The goal will be to have qualified drivers earn a red seal skilled trade certificate that will only be issued by vetted training facilities. This should have a negative effect on those trainers who aren’t producing the skill level required by the road. Having only highly skilled, properly trained drivers, who are fully aware of the scam artists in the business, aren’t going to work for those cut corner types of operators.
The current statistics of serious wrecks across the country will come back to much fewer incidents, making the roads considerably safer. The rate cutter bunch will choose another industry to destroy, and trucking will again be respected. Rates will stabilize and those left in the industry will be able to operate with a profit expectation following all the rules. Further, insurance rates will come back into the mere gouging range.
2026 will definitely be better in the trucking industry. The first indicator, in my opinion, is the rapidness with which PTTAC has changed the mindset of so many and will within the next few months have the required five provinces to solidify truck driving as a red seal skilled trade where training will be standardized nationally. Where newly licensed truck drivers have a lifetime career ahead of them with chances to have updated skills recognized as steps forward in skill development. Where every skilled driver will have the knowledge within themselves and are ultimately qualified to drive the equipment for which he’s been hired to drive.
This training mindset changing to be nationally standardized and no shortcuts to exacting testing will inspire a confidence in the abilities of those operational individuals that will make our highways infinitely safer than the highway terror of today.
The next indicator is the number and diversity of the support organizations holding membership in PTTAC. Large carriers, insurance giants, the best of the best training facilities, the myriad of support services to the trucking industry that believe in the ability of trucking to thrive and survive and put a crimp in those that would use and enjoy corruption for their livelihood. Where only the properly trained and skilled people operate safely on the roads in 2026 in Canada.
