{"id":76098,"date":"2026-06-05T15:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/76098\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:55:06","slug":"whats-causing-systemic-failures-in-canadas-trucking-industry-we-answered-your-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/76098\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s causing systemic failures in Canada\u2019s trucking industry? We answered your questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A driver rests in their truck parked in the lot at the ONroute Cambridge South in Cambridge, Ont., on May 19.Keito Newman\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

On June 3 at 12 p.m. ET, investigative reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh and data editor Mahima Singh answered reader questions about their months-long investigation into Canada\u2019s trucking industry<\/a>, which found that weak oversight and regulatory loopholes are letting predatory trucking companies run roughshod over vulnerable drivers.<\/p>\n

In the vital trucking sector, weak oversight is leaving Canada\u2019s workers unprotected and unsafe<\/a><\/p>\n

In the Q&A, readers asked about the surprises and challenges of analyzing datasets from trucking companies across the country, the precarious conditions of the industry and gaps in governmental oversight. Here are some highlights.<\/p>\n

Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

Precarious conditions of trucking<\/p>\n

What risks do drivers face if they speak out or refuse unsafe work?<\/p>\n

Sara Mojtehedzadeh: It depends. Many of course fear losing their jobs, and if they have been misclassified, may face barriers in accessing basic protections under the law regarding termination, etc. The other issue is that they may have precarious immigration status \u2013 still waiting for permanent residency, or here as a temporary foreign worker on a work permit that ties them to their current employer.<\/p>\n

How did trucking change from a middle-class job to precarious work?<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: I think the answer is somewhat complex, and depends on your perspective. But some experts would certainly point to poor labour and tax enforcement which has allowed poor working conditions to flourish including wage theft and employee misclassification. Some would also point to the role of deregulation, which happened in the late \u201980s to early \u201990s which eliminated rate setting and reduced entry barriers for new carriers. (Proponents would argue this improved productivity and efficiency in the sector, while critics argue it contributed to a \u201crace-to-the-bottom\u201d dynamic.)<\/p>\n

How do the working conditions, pay and benefits of a long-distance trucking employee compare to other operators of heavy, complex and expensive equipment, e.g. earth movers on a mine site? Are trucking company employees at a disadvantage?<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: I don\u2019t have exact stats on wages for comparable fields to hand, but what I can say is that many drivers I spoke to said they were attracted to the field, thinking it would be a pretty decently paid job. However, on top of the misclassification issue, many expressed frustration that significant chunks of the work are unpaid. Many drivers now only get paid when the wheels are moving. So for example, if they are stuck at the border for seven hours, they won\u2019t get paid for that time in many cases.<\/p>\n

Why has there been such a marked deterioration in the driving skills of truckers over the last few decades? Once they were a model of skill, courtesy and pride in their vocation.<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: One of the things I enjoy most as a journalist is chatting to the people doing the job I\u2019m writing about, and this story was no exception. I think many of the drivers I spoke with genuinely care about improving standards in this industry and in some cases described going to great lengths to flag bad actors to the authorities. And many expressed frustration, feeling that their complaints kind of fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n

I think there are many people in this industry, both drivers and firm owners, who take a lot of pride in their work and are conscious of the public safety element. However, to touch on what you raised, we do know \u2013 at least in Ontario \u2013 that there are significant problems with some trucking schools not giving their students the required training. This came out in a recent Auditor-General report, and we hope to have more coverage of that issue.<\/p>\n

Is this a labour problem \u2013 or a public safety issue?<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: I think our research would suggest it is both, since existing studies link poor working conditions to road safety.<\/p>\n

It would be interesting if the article compared what is going on in Canada with the U.S. Presumably, some of these drivers are crossing the border and American drivers are coming here.<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: This is a great idea! The U.S. also keeps pretty comprehensive data on trucking firms, including Canadian firms that send trucks south of the border, which is helpful for our journalism. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration is also currently implementing a lot of changes in the trucking sector. The administration has said it will be cracking down on bad practices such as double brokering. It is also proposing to rescind the guidelines for determining employee or independent contractor status introduced under the Biden administration and essentially pare down the factors decision-makers rely on to determine employee status. <\/p>\n

Labour advocates believe this move would weaken protections for misclassified workers, while some business groups \u2013 like the one representing owner-operators in the trucking sector \u2013 have welcomed the move, citing fears that stricter regulation results in some legitimate owner-operators being reclassified as employees.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Trucks are seen in from Keele St. driving along the 401 in Toronto on May 20.Keito Newman\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Peeking into the data<\/p>\n

What was the most surprising thing you found in the data?<\/p>\n

Mahima Singh: We worked with datasets from transport regulators across Canada, and I spent a lot of time matching them together. Companies often appeared under slightly different names across datasets, so figuring out which records belonged to the same company was a fun challenge.<\/p>\n

One thing I noticed was that the same company could show up in multiple jurisdictions with small variations in its name. Proving they were actually the same company made me feel like an investigator in a dark room, standing in front of a corkboard covered in red thread, connecting all the dots.<\/p>\n

Once we had that dataset of over 100,000 companies, I had the job of pairing it down and matching it with other datasets to pinpoint companies we could report on.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Trucks line up for the Oakville North Inspection Station in Oakville, Ont., on May 21.Keito Newman\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Government action and resources<\/p>\n

When is Ontario\u2019s Transport Minister going to act on shabby licensing practices and enforcement of the trucking industry regulations? Poorly trained drivers are causing a high proportion of major accidents.<\/p>\n

Singh: There is little public data on where drivers involved in collisions received their training. A recent Ontario audit found that the Transportation Ministry does not track outcomes from truck-driving schools, such as road-test failure rates or driving infractions after licensing. You can read our coverage here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

If the federal government has penalized some of these employers, why has it only collected a sliver of the millions of dollars in unpaid wages to pay drivers? <\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: This is probably the biggest frustration I heard from drivers. Our ATIPs found that Ottawa has collected less than 20 per cent of the $6-million in payment orders issued to trucking firms that didn\u2019t pay workers. That causes huge financial strain for many drivers. Ottawa says the rise of \u201cnon-standard\u201d work arrangements complicates its efforts to recoup drivers\u2019 wages sometimes. <\/p>\n

So for example, a trucking firm may be registered to a residential address \u2013 and then just change its address to avoid enforcement efforts. Or drain their bank account and move their assets to a different one. However, labour advocates would also like to see the government use more of the tools at its disposal to recoup these unpaid wages, for example using writs of seizure to obtain workers\u2019 money on their behalf.<\/p>\n

Is there a list of the companies that have been fined? Is that public knowledge that can be shared? <\/p>\n

Singh: Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) publishes a list<\/a> of employers that have violated the rules of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), but this database is not complete.<\/p>\n

Some provincial transport ministries track fine data, but that data is not public.<\/p>\n

It appears that the laws and procedures and agencies are already in place, mostly. What is needed is much stronger oversight, penalties and enforcement powers \u2013 meaning stricter government oversight. Does Canada need a federal governing agency with enforcer powers to supervise the industry?<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: One of the issues that came up in our investigation was the fractured nature of trucking regulation<\/a>, and there are certainly calls for a more centralized approach. Perhaps a national registry of trucking firms, for example, or better information sharing arrangements.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A person walks in the truck lot at the ONroute Cambridge South in Cambridge, Ont., on May 19.Keito Newman\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Solutions<\/p>\n

Based on your months of reporting and speaking to drivers, trucking companies and Ottawa officials, what do you think is the best way to fix the rampant issues in the industry?<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: There have been lots of proposed fixes – I think an important one is around improving labour enforcement to make sure there are stronger deterrents to breaking the law. This would help address both misclassification concerns and wage theft issues. I also heard many calls for improved information sharing between the different agencies regulating trucking so that bad actors can be effectively identified. And many experts would like to see more proactive safety inspections, from in-depth audits to even just having inspection stations on the highways open for longer hours.<\/p>\n

Trucking firms need to be inspected in person to ensure compliance, but your analysis found many companies have never received such an audit. Why is that and what can be done to fix this? What else did your research find?<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: One suggestion is increasing the number of facility audits, which are in-depth inspections of a firm\u2019s vehicles, record keeping, etc. Some groups like the Ontario Trucking Association are at least doing a more pared down version of these checks so that there\u2019s more in-person interaction with trucking firms to ensure compliance, while not breaking the bank. <\/p>\n

Another important takeaway from our research is that facility audits need to be pared with enforcement action \u2013 like charges being laid when infractions are identified \u2013 in order to improve safety outcomes, according to research conducted for the Ontario MTO.<\/p>\n

What else did truck drivers and other insiders say that didn\u2019t make it into the final piece?<\/p>\n

Mojtehedzadeh: Lots! But we have more stories coming.<\/p>\n

Singh: We are just beginning to scratch the surface of this issue. Stay tuned for more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A driver rests in their truck parked in the lot at the ONroute…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3128,17209,136,902,903,904,17,484],"class_list":["post-76098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ac-community","tag-ac-qa","tag-appwebview","tag-aud-growth","tag-aud-headline","tag-aud-url","tag-canada","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}