Greed driving truck training schools toward disaster
It’s pretty flat in Ontario’s trucking heartland, but it appears that some truck driving schools in the area are quickly sliding down a slippery slope to the murky bottom of shoddy training. And while doing so, they are putting lives in danger.
A not so shining example of the situation plaguing the Peel Region – comprising Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon – was on display recently.
Peel Regional Police’s Road Safety Services officers pulled a trucking school’s vehicle in for an inspection on Dec. 15. “Many issues were found,” a social media post from the police said.
Police provided a list that was long and scary. Air tank bracket broken. Tires worn beyond limit. Front tires making contact with air lines. Numerous audible air leaks.
Police charged both the school and driver, and removed plates from the tractor and trailer. Good riddance! A menace is off the roads, how many more to go?
In my mind, the pre-trip inspection at the school’s yard (if they have one, most likely not) or along the side of a quiet side street must have gone like this.
Where is the pre-trip inspection training?
“All parts are secure. I can see no damage on the tires, and can hear no audible air leaks,” the student parroted from memory while blankly staring at the vehicle that is not road-worthy.
“Don’t worry about all this, just focus on passing the driving test,” the driving instructor, who probably is also the owner/manager/mechanic of the school, likely told the student.
Schools are witnessing a steep drop in enrolments and fees as competition to attract a dwindling number of students has grown increasingly fierce.
After the federal government announced curbs on international student numbers a couple of months ago, some schools say enrolment has plummeted 40-60%.
And more alarming, many of the scores of schools in the area are reducing fees in a desperate bid to sign up the few aspiring truckers available.
MELT offered for $3,000
There are signs offering mandatory entry-level training (MELT) for $3,500. An online Black Friday MELT deal was available for $3,000.
Owners of schools that offer proper training have been pouring personal funds into their businesses as they struggle to stay open. Some have slashed rates to the bare minimum while cutting down on trainers, trucks and locations.
They say students only want to know how much they charge and how long will it take. There are no questions about quality of training, safety or reputation. They also shared stories of students approaching them after failing multiple road tests while enrolled at low-cost schools.
There is talk about some schools that are skimping on the in-class training or abandoning it altogether. And some students only get a few stints behind the wheel before being sent for a road test.
Philip Fletcher, president of the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario said fly-by-night schools are cutting corners and training time. He noted that on average, one-on-one training in a truck cost $120 an hour. MELT mandates 32 hours of on-road training, meaning it would cost a school $3,840 per student.
Since some schools are charging students between $3,000 and $3,500, the numbers don’t add up. But the truck that was pulled over for inspection shows how some are managing to operate while dropping their fees.
They are not concerned about road safety or maintaining their equipment. These greedy people are focused on making money while other road users be damned.
These schools operate in crowded urban areas, trundling through intersections and streets filled with pedestrians, including schoolchildren. A faulty braking system and worn tires, especially during winter, is a disaster waiting to happen.
Maybe pedestrians should be trained to pay attention to audible air leaks as they walk down a street. The way things are going, the training could save their lives.
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Mr. Webster, all of the owners of those schools lack integrity and any kind professional out look when their focus is on cutting corners. When the public is being killed and receiving life changing injuries from the drivers these schools turn out, I don’t understand how the owners can sleep at night. I look forward to the day that the lawyers show up to hold the schools accountable for their falsified documents that allowed poorly trained drivers on our roads, to harm our families. A few timely lawsuits might help to straighten out the situation.
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These shitty schools are 100 percent to blame. There is no quality or good drivers coming out of these so called schools.
This has been an issue for over 25 years, not until CBC documents the ridiculous business that driving schools are, does the public get involved. Every city in ontario and Quebec. Transport companies have to return to teaching and training drivers. Most firms have safety personnel to achieve this.
The only reason why Humber truck training was forced to shut down. They were one of very few training schools that actually did that, train drivers properly. The majority of these new immigrants are only becoming truck drivers because it’s one way to stay in Canada. The majority of so called truck training schools do not teach the basics of how to safely operate a truck, nor do they care about the consequences of unleashing an untrained driver on the populace.
Perhaps some type of grant that pays for potential new drivers to put in a set amount of hours as a drivers assistant before
being able to take the wheel themselves.
Truck accident rates to include loss of life are exhilarating in this country.
It’s criminal for those schools who fail to abide by the law and should be charged and put out of business.
Provincial regulators in turn need more frequent inspection of these schools practices in training and inspection of their vehicles.
Some of these schools are TTSAO members just like Smart Truck Training Academy that was showcased in the October episode of CBC Marketplace. That TTSAO school got busted cutting training hours and not delivering any classroom training.
Excellent reporting Leo !
Sadly you #CantFixStupid and it looks like it will continue for a while longer while we wait to the rift-raft to fall and get out of a business they have no need being in. You are not wrong in the need for training for pedestrians and other road users to help them become more aware of these bad actors. More MTO and enforcement roadside inspections of this nature are needed.
There only a few Truck Driver Training in Canada that I would consider remotely professional.
This inspection and these photos tell a true story of how really poor most of these schools are.
I drive by one in Edmonton regularly and really looks like a junk yard.
We do have some good Truck Driver Training Schools but not very many.
I totally agree with Stephen. I would add another item of concern, that being one of Rate Cutting. This item is definitely keep good legitimate would be Truckers steering away from this Industry not to mention quality Driver’s from seeking other Career or opting to an earlier Retirement than was initially intended. The ongoing problems are evident, not that difficult to mend, fix and move forward but Authority has to kick in and immediately address the cancerous problem and decay.
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You are 100% right about rate cutting and the use of lease ops to get around payroll taxes and paid sick days
TTSAO got some nerve pointing fingers at other schools when they should be the ones you look at. It’s called “projecting”
After reading your article it does not surprise me at all. Huge immigration and the demand for Class One drivers opened the door to a new fast growing industry within the trucking world. The vision of big money returns has lead entrepreneurs to start training schools at a very fast pace. The problem became that supply and demand has changed and there are not the available driving candidates to support all these new schools any more. Subsequently survival kicks in and the rate cutting and fraud start as well as all costs of operation including lack of appropriate training and maintenance.
The answer to this problem is that all MELT schools should be audited annually for compliance at the cost of the school itself and that would help get rid of the bad actors and clean up the system
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It is a huge demand for cheap truck drivers and many highly schooled people using truck drivers as a way to come to Canada
It has been called the Male nanny program for the last 10 years. We can fix this problem but large companies many that belong to a certain group do not want it fixed in my opinion
CBC marketplace exposed one those TTSAO schools back in October. Not a good look for them.
I would like to take this time to let you know how saddened i am to see what is happening to our commercial industry. as we all know, there are way to many commercial trucks involved in acciedents, and this is all due to improper training right from the start. i have been a professional AZdriver for over 26 years without an incident, and am very proud of this. Due to a serious neck injury i am no longer able to drive for long periods of time,so i took this opportunity to become a driver trainer, and pass down my knowledge to new drivers. All i hope for is to make our roads safer one driver at a time.
I have had the privledge to work for many schools that truly have no clue on whats needed to provide the proper knowledge on how to be a safe , and professional driver. Most schools cut corners for profit which will only turn out unsafe drivers, along with absolutely no knowledge on SAFETY and COMPLIANCE.
When i read this article about the unsafe schools that are out there was know surprise to me. Most of the equipment i had to use was unsafe to the point that i refused to go on the road , but at least i was able to show students what it shouldn’t look like. Because of my ongoing complaints to the owners, i found myself out of a job all because of the cost of maintenance that would have them comply with safety standards
in my personal opinion, all owners and trainers should be certified in this field. REMEMBER; all road users are counting on us to keep them safe.
Leave the whole industry sink to nothing. Only then change will come. Training,certification and proper pay. Trucking is like politics. It must be destroyed to rise again.
What a joke,I remember an article from 2 trucking magazines 25 or so years ago how doctors, schools, examiners were charged with falsification of 3000 licenses for truck drivers. All were retested, all failed. Came from BC. Also that was the scam get licenses in bc stay for a month, then come back to Ontario. Please check archives, very small article.But some of us old timers remember this.
The MTO, Peel, York and ALL other enforcement agencies have known this problem has existed for over 20 yrs but have never had the stones to confront it for fear of a racist charge. Trucking companies (not all), don’t want to spend money on training. They only look at the upfront cost, not the true savings 6-12 months later in less claims, charges/convictions. The Federal Govt refuses to recognize truck drivers as skilled tradesman We are only unskilled labor. A manicurist, hairdresser, welder (basic) etc all have to apprentice for hundreds if not up to 3-4,000 hrs to be certified. But you can get a CDL in 2 weeks and take an 80,000-130,000 lb rig onto our roads with zero experience. A disaster in the making. Ont is also extremely short of all law enforcement to combat this and our judicial system is a joke. Most times it’s a gentle slap on the wrist. When are our politicians going to wake up and fix this disaster?? When are the CTA, OTA and all Prov trucking organizations going to really press the Feds HARD to fix this and not be bought off by the big carriers and the shippers?
The last 5 Co’s I’ve driven for have all refused to have safety meetings, even when I’ve suggested they partner with 3-5 other local carriers doing the same haulage to reduce their meetings cost. The EXCUSE – it costs to much!!!
I’ve had a good run, but SAFETY has gone downhill since I started full time in 1972. My first company, TriAd Truckways was strict on safety. No logs, but only so many allowable hrs and we were followed by management numerous times to check our driving. If you committed an offense it wasn’t a good day when you had to visit the terminal manager. Where is the oversight today??
D G Wanless
Wasaga Beach
CDL since 1964
8 yr P/T; 33 yr OTR; 20 yr regional/local, 5Mil + miles.
Retiring – Feb 5/25.
This doesn’t surprise me. Since the very first day of my practical at TTCC on June 25th , I was concerned about this school when I was told to sit in an office chair behind the other student driver and instructor to observe. I asked about this and was told by the instructor that this is all they have for observation. An office chair unsecured and of course no seatbelt. At that time, I decided to keep a detailed log of my hours and documented all activities. On another occasion a truck was brought via 401 to our school from another location. My instructor was in the cab when I insisted to do my walk around. He was hesitant yet I did it anyway. I found 4 major defects which made the truck unroadworthy. This was ongoing and I am still fighting for my hours that I paid $13000 for. They said I was complete and booked my test. I had only had 13.5 hours of training in the cab behind the wheel at that point, due to no roadworthy trucks available for to many students. I did not pass the road test, yet they wanted me to pay $180 per hour to get back in for more time. I paid over $13000 to Transport Training Center of Canada and this is a joke. I was not the only student this was happening to. I also witnessed a few students that had little to no English language.
I have notified MPP, Career Colleges Superintendant, TTCC, MTO, OTA, CCTMA and no one seems to care that some of the largest trucking schools are not following MELT or proper training.
What do you think?
It is not just the training program that is in trouble but many trucking companies are also in . Trouble in my opinion.. Until someone takes the issues of how the industry is going to pay the $15 000 it costs to train a person that doesn’t have a lot of equipment experience and bring a graduated program things are going to get worse. I and others had a very difficult time to try get foreign truck drivers and mechanical people into the high wage streams. The number one issue is training number 2 is parking in Ontario number 3 is insurance and number 4 is fines for late delivery number 5 is hourly pay with overtime. Fix those 5 issues and in my opinion trucking will have a surplus of good drivers. Please do not blame the schools for just trying to survive when they no longer have foreign students as a source of income. Which in my opinion were often taken advantage of both the schools and the industry.