TORONTO, Ont. – The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) is launching a broad awareness campaign in a bid to convince shippers and receivers to consider the “cost of compliance” when choosing transportation providers.

The program, anchored by a social media campaign, is asking those who purchase transportation services to ensure that carriers are not cheating on taxes, cutting corners on safety, or willfully polluting the environment.

The CTA has been a public opponent of Driver Inc. – a business model that involves misclassifying employees as independent contractors – and those who bypass emissions controls using so-called delete kits, among other issues.

“The cost of transportation services includes the cost of compliance. This includes labour, tax, safety and environmental costs. Remove these compliance costs from the price of transportation, and you have a lower transportation cost figure. This is not rocket science,” CTA president Stephen Laskowski says in a related press release. 

A related document found here highlights concerns about the ways some carriers are manipulating ELD data, misrepresenting their activities in a bid for lower insurance rates, and the risks such activities present to shippers.

“It has been commonly known for some time there is a strong correlation between driver misclassification and a disregard for safety. Recent data now shows that carriers who have been charged with Driver Inc. offenses in Ontario, through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), are also found to have poor on-road safety performance and high rates of non-compliance violations in the areas of hours of service, speed and vehicle maintenance,” the support material notes.

“Think about it: If a carrier ‘s business model is built on ignoring labour law to keep costs artificially low and gain market share, it’s likely they’ll dodge important safety regulations as well.”

Many shippers and receivers already have mission statements that commit companies to environmental, workplace safety, and compliance standards, the CTA adds.

“The prime mandate of this CTA campaign is to encourage CEOs of these organizations to pause and ensure their goods are moving by safe and compliant trucks and not by transportation companies whose business strategy is to lower costs by illegally circumventing compliance,” said Laskowski.  

The association is encouraging carriers to share the campaign information with customers, and to contact executives with leading shippers, particularly those who are responsible for corporate images.