No such thing as a driver shortage
Dear Editor:
I read with interest, your recent column about the driver shortage. As a 27-year veteran of the trucking industry, it has been my personal challenge to expose this myth for what it is: smoke and mirrors – a myth perpetuated by our industry captains.
Is there actually a driver shortage, or simply an over-abundance of (PPF) poor paying freight?
PPF in my opinion is responsible for the lack of entry-level employees in the transport industry – poor paying freight equals poorly paid drivers.
Why would anyone want to join an industry that treats their employees this way?
Regulated to death, responsibility to no end and the average driver working 300 hours per month with no overtime pay and very little in the way of benefits, not even an auxiliary pension fund to contribute to.
Everything from poor pay to lack of parking contributes to the degradation of this industry and yet you don’t hear the CTA, OTA or any other provincial association for that matter, saying a single word to our government about those issues. We are left on our own to contend with the never ending lack of services. There is not a driver shortage, there is a shortage of people applying for this crappy job. Importing drivers from around the world does nothing to address the root of the problem, it simply perpetuates the problem.
Larry James Hall
www.TheTruckers Guild.com
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I see so many trucking companies in the Vancouver B.C. area where I live, who are blatantly breaking parts of the Canadian Federal Labour Code & getting away with it, as there seems to be zero enforcement of the regulations.
I am referring to the rules regarding the pay of Statutory Holiday Pay, which states that a worker ( truck drivers included ) stat holiday pay is calculated by taking the amount the worker earned in the previous pay period & dividing it by the number of days worked in that previous pay period, to come up with an average days pay.
Also the Federal Labour Code which covers most inter-provincial truck drivers, states that drivers are also entitled to overtime pay at time & a half after 60 hours in a week. There is no exception for truck drivers paid by the mile. So according to the regulations, if a truck driver is paid 50 cents per mile, then after 60 hours per week ( which is easily recorded in the drivers log or e-log ) that truck driver would be entitled to be paid 75 cents per mile.
I was recently offered a job & told in writing & I quote “that my millage pay includes everything, holiday pay, stat holiday pay, all included.” Clearly this is not what the Canadian Labour Code states !
While these rules exist, many companies owned by immigrants to Canada from India, are actively bringing in foreign drivers ( again mostly from India ) and not following the Canadian Labor Code.
Now before you all start calling me racist, ask yourselves, is it not racist to pay a driver less than they are entitled to simply because they are from another country ? The true reason that so many companies are eager to bring in foreign workers is because those workers will likely not be familiar with the Canadian Labour Code. If their level of English or French is not good, they will have great difficulty in searching through all the on-line information on the Canadian government website.
It is about time we stopped being so afraid of being called “racist” & not be afraid to question the hiring practices of many, many trucking companies in Canada. I don’t care where a person comes from, but when in Canada follow the Canadian rules, no exceptions !