Trucking’s dirty underbelly is an embarrassment
It’s getting embarrassing to say you work in the Canadian trucking industry. I’m officially sick and tired of hearing about another carrier breaking the law.
This week, drivers weren’t paid. Last week, it was immigration fraud. Last month, a carrier was caught making money selling jobs through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). No one dreamed of this crap 15 years ago, let alone actually did it.
It started with the gig economy. At first, I figured gig work was just a new twist on self-employment. How bad could it be? Then Driver Inc. came along.
Worker misclassification, tax evasion, unfair competition, driver exploitation, trashed reputation, unsafe and unprofessional drivers — in our industry. I grossly underestimated the disaster it would become.
It’s pissing me off. Trucking is on a slippery slope, and things need to change.
Supplier angst
My M&A business lets me see this industry from the outside. And I have to tell you, there’s a lot of skepticism about our ability to do “good” business. Two C-suite executives I met golfing this summer told me unequivocally that their sectors no longer want anything to do with Canadian trucking. It was a real gut punch.
Think about the insane number of illegal truck yards on prime farmland west of Toronto. Joel Assaly, a municipal law specialist with the Town of Caledon, said carriers have “a blatant disregard for the rules.”
Complex paper trails make it almost impossible to get to the perpetrators. Just ask the landlords who had a tenant under lease at 5 p.m. and an empty building the next morning. Welcome to the trucking industry and the ever-popular ‘midnight move.’
Stunts like this hurt our brand and your company. On the highway, in the community, in front of a prospect, when you’re meeting a loan officer, when you’re hiring — our sleazy rep hurts your business.
Change the narrative
I know a lot of you are mad. We all see the same thing.
Too many industry leaders turn a blind eye to these shenanigans. Maybe they’re tired of fighting. It’s exhausting defending an industry you’re so friggin’ proud of despite the painful facts.
I should know. Don’t make the same mistake as me. Speak up. Tell the truth.
Talk to your customers who are ignorant of the illegal underbelly they support through freight brokers. More shippers than you think might reconsider routings if they knew the drivers hauling their freight were treated like indentured servants.
After a visit to Canada, Tomoya Obokata, a United Nations special rapporteur, called TFWP a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”
If that doesn’t get their attention, the customer isn’t worth having.
Culpable industry
By far, my biggest concern is untrained drivers. Canada’s current training model is an unenforced sham. Many drivers are coached to get licences, not to become professionals. They have no right to be behind the wheel.
As leaders, we have a fiduciary responsibility to keep our highways safe. Like it or not, we are all culpable. Personally, I’m speaking with leaders in my network. All kinds of leaders.
Our chats about untrained drivers have sparked some interesting narratives. By far and away the most common is a fear of driving the highway home from the restaurant.
That includes my longtime neighbor, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and fellow St. Mikes alum MPP Stephen Lecce. We recently talked about deficiencies in truck safety over breakfast. Good news is, I hit a single and a trip to Queen’s Park is in the works.
It’s on us
The current government is useless on this issue. A colossal waste of time. Time we don’t have. What do we do?
We need a pivot so massive and off-the-wall you’re going to think I’m nuts. I’m sure it won’t be the first time. It’s a strategy other industries use to ensure their workforce meets higher standards and the general public is protected.
It’s called self-policing. More on that next month.
Have your say
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Well said I have been saying the same thing for the last 5 plus years
We need to look why this has happened and how
First truck parking and trucks are very difficult to get approved close to Toronto or Vancouver. . The program to bring in foreign ( student)) that end up with min training. Certain trucking companies first started 9 years ago charging $5000 to $10000 plus agency fees of 5000 plus . When our nonprofit and others stepped up to get them to able to change trucking companies after 1 yr the cost of a permit went up to over $30 000 plus a$9000 agency fee. 5 years ago in did a 16 min interview across the I heart radio network in the United States. I got over 20 calls from large trucking companies including 3 that sent me orders from their lawyers to stop telling people about what happens in Ontario. When the nonprofit that work and volunteer with that help transfer sick and injured truck drivers pushed for 11 paid sick days .we got 10 there was a lot of push back and we still are pushing for medical coverage across Canada for drivers if uniform standards come in
I blame the trucking industry for putting Short term profits ahead of a min training enforcement standards and min working conditions
Look at impact plastic how many bad things need to happen to reduce driver inc and even though this may sound like I am r — t I. think we need a graduated licence program form heavy equipment and trucks in Canada
I see where you’re coming from with the idea of ‘self-policing,’ but it feels a bit like asking the criminals to be the jail guards. When the same players are responsible for both setting and enforcing the rules, accountability often suffers. In my humble opinion the industry needs stronger external oversight or independent mechanisms to restore trust and sustainability. What are your thoughts on striking that balance?
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I have been pushing for someone that works with crash victims to help set up a independent group and take driver permit tests away from a private company and handed back to a nonprofit A great idea but the large companies that are receivers or wholesale/ retail do not want it in my opinion
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I agree, the basic problem come from large companies : they want more and more competition to handle rate down. Our Industry need rate regulations
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We all know what the problem is but no one is allowed to talk about it.
Could not have said it better,,, 2 thumbs up.
Precisely correct Mike. Time for big change before highway safety is impacted permanently.
I fully endorse Your comments Terry as well as the support from Mark. Our Trucking Industry is in Shambles, unfortunately, due to this unmonitored business practice. This has to and must be addressed immediately by Our Government. Fix the problem, what’s the problem or reluctance to act? Stand up People!!!
To say there is a problem is the understatement of the year. I speak with and work for companies of all shapes and sizes in my business. Speaking to some companies it is evident they have no concept of what a professional operation is. The drivers everyone complains about, don’t wake up every day with the intent of going out and hurting or killing someone, yet it happens daily. Speaking to these folks it becomes quite apparent that they are by all accounts indentured servants. Someone sprung some $$ to get then into the country and now the driver owes them until that $$ is paid back. Liken this situation to the never never lease brokers buy into when the lease to own a truck from their company. Every cost the driver incurs goes onto that debt that they almost certainly can never pay off. They work like mad dogs trying to get ahead, driver like mad men trying to get out from under the debt. Most are behind in getting paid, most are under trained if trained at all.
The companies are in a big race to the bottom, selling their services cheaper and cheaper to get the load. It is not uncommon to have 4-5 companies involved in one load, not one of them making a profit.
As you say the government is a waste of time, Doug Ford promised less red tape, yet red tape is layered upon layer in every new program they put forward. Why is it the scales in Southern Ont. can be manned 24/7 but in Northern Ont. they aren’t even opened on a daily basis? If it is so effective to have enforcement officers out on patrol instead of in the scales why have the scales? Give law enforcement the tools they need, write legislation that allows a charge to stick without getting tossed in court. It can’t be that hard to back track a newly licensed driver involved in a mvc to find out how/why they are in the driver’s seat.
Wow,
I’ve been fighting this battle so long it seems normal.
Rates have been driven into the ground.
We struggle to pay bills.
We operate legally, own our trucks and trailers, pay our staff more than most. Yet…..we struggle to compete.
I don’t know where this will end.
I have been preaching “Registered Red Seal Trade”
For decades with hourly pay.
All this, and I’m still hopeful.
Look forward to seeing your strategy plan, Mike. You’re right. It’s a mess and government isn’t going to help. We may be past the point of no return. The MELT program is a charade. The proposal to Red Seal the profession will just enrich fly by night schools.
Love Love Love this !!
Help is so required it’s a friigging
mess to say the least !
We love our trucking friends and those who are pissing me off need to get the hell
Out !
In spite of all this……..bottom dollar rates continue to be the leader.
Industry 70’s was an other dynamique, with real organisation doing buseness , growin, and making money like a buiseness should be. From 80’s dereglementation, an open market was create , and all the bulls*** we have now come from there . Trucking is fill with a lot of seasonnal products that put variations in demand , mixed with too much of good guys worker , and that give droping rates ! too much shippers now fixing the rate by themselves and scraps the market, telling someoneslse will do it. So now someone else are immigrants , we are there at the other end of the market. the market need oligopoly to crete interesting buiseness .
Mike,
Harken back before we had deregulation. Did we have any of this bad behaviour?
Truck transportation was a highly regulated industry with none of the behaviour we are
experiencing now. Rates enabled shippers to be competitive, yet trucking companies
were obliged to perform responsibly, because of the said regulations.
No we have we have companies who approach legacy carriers customers and the first words out
of the sales person’s mouth are” How much are you paying” whatever it is “we will do it for less’.
Safety Value Service Customer Loyalty and treating empolyees as the most important asset that
does not appear on the company’s balance sheet have all gone out the window.
And the barriers of entry are now so low its easy to understand why we are in trouble and the most recent
financial disaster is another prime example of it.
I am really not sure what the answer is but I think its time the government revisit some aspects of of our
industry prior to deregulation.
Great article, Mike. To say it is frightening is an understatement. It is frustrating and embarrassing, but you make a good point. Where is the due diligence? Companies will state their commitment to safety, but when it comes to moving freight, as long as the paperwork says everything is ok, then damn the torpedos and ship away.
How difficult is it to find companies charging $3500 for a MELT program compared to a reputable training organization charging properly for the same program?