The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) has released the results of a national survey, which found more than a third of driver applicants ask to be misclassified as independent contractors.

The number is closer to 50% in Ontario, where the so-called Driver Inc. scheme is “rampant,” the alliance noted.

Drivers classified as a Personal Services Business can evade taxes while their employers can sidestep payroll taxes and payment of benefits to their drivers, CTA alleges. However, despite its lobbying efforts, governments at the provincial and federal levels have done little to enforce existing rules.

The survey was taken by 83 carriers representing 10,600 trucks. It included an assessment of nearly 18,000 applications over the past six months from professional truck drivers. An average of 36% said they wanted to be employed under the illegal model, CTA said.

“Even after the carrier companies explained they would not illegally misclassify workers and drivers would need to own their own units to be considered a legal independent contractor, nearly half (49%) refused the job outright,” CTA revealed in a release.

“Alarmingly, half of Ontario carriers said between 50% and 100%  of all applicants demanded to work in the underground economy – and 13 carriers said over 75% of those looking for a job would only work as Driver Inc.,” it added.

CTA chief Stephen Laskowski said: “Across Canada it’s becoming increasingly difficult for companies that want to obey the law to hire anyone legally – and in some markets in Ontario, it’s almost impossible to do so. The underground economy is out of control. By disregarding this lawlessness, Ottawa and many provincial governments have created conditions whereby honest, responsible companies that want to hire workers cannot do so because working in the underground trucking economy has become so normalized that an increasing number of potential workers in Canada refuse to work legally.”

He urged the party that wins the upcoming federal election to take the issue more seriously.