Investigation: Is unsafe Ontario equipment being allowed to operate with unethically obtained safety inspection decals?
A Toronto-area heavy-duty repair shop owner recently became suspicious when a normally steady stream of local trucks seeking annual safety inspections stopped showing up. When he began seeing those same units coming to his shop in various states of disrepair, yet with shiny new FMCSA inspection stickers affixed, his suspicions grew.
Some of the customers told him they found a cheaper service provider for safety inspections elsewhere. But he also noticed each of those trucks and trailers from a variety of trucking companies were certified by the same Illinois repair shop, ATG Repair.
The U.S. and Canada have reciprocity agreements regarding annual inspection stickers, and there are legitimate reasons why a Canadian company may choose to have its inspection done in the U.S. Perhaps the company has an existing relationship with a U.S. shop, or maybe it was able to reduce downtime by taking advantage of a cross-border driver’s mandatory hours-of-service reset.
However, the shop owner could think of no possible explanation for so many Ontario-based trucks and trailers to have all been inspected by the same shop in Cook County, Ill. Stranger yet, these trucks carrying ATG Repair stickers, but belonging to different companies, frequently congregated in the same Mississauga yard.
The shop owner, whose name is being withheld over personal concerns of retribution, hired a licensed private investigator whose findings paint a picture of a widespread scheme involving the issuance of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) inspection stickers in Ontario without the mandatory related inspections.
Trucknews.com has reviewed the findings of that investigation, after whistleblower complaints to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, DriveON, federal Minister of Transportation and U.S. FMCSA yielded limited, if any, responses. Trucknews.com also interviewed its own sources to corroborate the private investigator’s findings and conducted additional research of its own in compiling this report.
What is an FMCSA inspection sticker?
By law, every truck and trailer operated in both Canada and the U.S. must undergo an annual safety inspection. A decal is affixed to units that pass, while units that don’t pass must have necessary repairs completed before they are allowed to continue operating.
The reciprocity agreement means a sticker awarded in the U.S. is recognized in Ontario and vice-versa, but to be compliant, Ontario trucks obtaining a sticker in the U.S. must have additional work — such as an emissions test — done upon returning to Ontario.
The repair shop owner who launched the investigation told trucknews.com the typical cost for an annual safety inspection is about $800-$1,000 for a tractor and $500-$650 for a trailer in the Toronto market.
It takes about seven hours of labor by a licensed mechanic to complete a tractor inspection and four to five hours to safety a trailer, he said.
Who is ATG Repair?
While FMCSA-issued stickers aren’t required to be branded with the name of the shop that conducted the inspection, those issued by ATG Repair were conspicuously labeled. These stickers also displayed ATG’s address as 1293 Industrial Drive in Lake in the Hills, Ill.
Public records searches indicate the business was founded in 2014, owned in 2015 by Oleksandr Popovych and later by Tanya Popovych. Both are affiliated with a trucking company called Vista Trans Holding, which has an office address of 8 Prosper Court, Lake in the Hills, Ill.
Mapquest lists ATG Repair being based at that same Prosper Court address. A related firm, Vista Trans Freight, also has an FMCSA SAFER broker profile that shared the address on ATG’s stickers at 1293 Industrial Drive.
Vista Trans Holding, headquartered at the 8 Prosper Court address, is billed on LinkedIn as “the leading enterprise on the U.S. market and an international cargo shipment company,” and Oleksandr Popovych as a serial entrepreneur who is its CEO and founder.
It operates 410 power units and has an FMCSA-reported vehicle out-of-service rate of 28%, above the 22% national average. Its website lists heavy-hitter shippers such as Walmart, Amazon and FedEx among its partners.
Oleksandr Popovych’s LinkedIn profile makes no reference to ATG Repair. Tanya Popovych is listed on LinkedIn as president of Vista Trans, but her profile also makes no mention of ATG Repair, despite being listed on corporate records as its president. Trucknews.com connected with Oleksandr Popovych on LinkedIn and asked about his connection to ATG Repair. The message appeared as read, but no response was received five days later. A request for a personal email address to which questions about ATG could be sent, was also unanswered.
ATG Repair stickers clearly say “An electronic record of this vehicles [sic] inspection report is maintained at: 1293 Industrial Drive, Lake in the Hills, IL, 60156.” Google Street View showed the location as home to R&B Body, not ATG Repair, and street-level images revealed a vacant lot. So, we decided to visit.
What we saw
Suzanne Stempinski is a semi-retired trucking industry journalist and former owner-operator living in Illinois. We asked her to visit ATG Repair to see if there was any sign of activity.
She visited 1293 Industrial Drive, the address on the FMCSA stickers, and found it was directly adjacent to the Vista Trans Holding trucking company at 8 Prosper Court. She went into Vista Trans to inquire about ATG Repair, but there was no one there (it was a Saturday).
She went around the back and found a bustling repair shop where people were milling about, working on company equipment. Stempinski spoke to several of the employees, who were wearing Vista Trans shirts.
“There was no signage either inside or outside that said ATG. Anywhere. Only Vista,” she reports. “The people working there also had Vista logos on their uniform shirts. The trucks and trailers were all Vista. I asked if they worked on equipment other than theirs, as Mapquest had identified this as ATG’s location. They assured me that yes, this was ATG, but that there was no manager there until Monday at 8 a.m.
“I told them I was just looking for a shop for future reference, but that I was a little confused since I only saw Vista signage and nothing for ATG. They told me not to worry and to call on Monday. They watched me as I left. I did not see any trucks from other companies – just Vista,” Stempinksi reported.
Why are so many Ontario trucks being certified by ATG Repair?
It seemed unusual that so many Ontario-domiciled trucks and trailers would’ve come across this small, seemingly unpromoted Illinois shop with no visible signage or branding. Ontario restricts the number of safety certificate stickers issued to each licensed mechanic, based on an expectation of how many such inspections they can reasonably complete. The U.S. has no such restrictions or limits on how many inspection stickers are issued to any given shop. In fact, you can even order FMCSA inspection decals online, though most providers won’t ship to Canada.
It’s difficult to know how many trucks and trailers have been certified by ATG Repair. The FMCSA doesn’t track how many safety certificates are issued by licensed repair shops.
The whistleblower suspects from his own observations in the Toronto area that they number in the hundreds — just from Ontario. Yet, he wondered whether the equipment ever even visited ATG Repair. He tracked the application of the safety stickers to a yard at 2315 Loreland Ave., in Mississauga, Ont., and had the private investigator stake out the location.
Video obtained by the private investigator reveals an individual appearing to remove and affix stickers to older power units and trailers and handing expectant drivers pink slips denoting a flawless inspection. All this in a yard that doesn’t house a repair shop and is not a registered DriveON inspection center.
Trucknews.com confirmed this by calling DriveON’s Vehicle Inspection Center assistance line and providing the address of the yard.
The investigator, meanwhile, did not observe any inspections taking place at the address where the stickers and inspection reports were being doled out.
When asked if he witnessed any inspection activity during his surveillance, the investigator told trucknews.com: “No, I did not see any inspections being conducted at the time the subject/suspect applied the stickers. He simply spoke with the truck drivers, prepared some paperwork, applied the stickers and gave the paperwork to the drivers and they left the area in the trucks. I had been conducting surveillance on those trucks before the suspect even arrived, so I know there was no inspections done at that time.”
The “suspect” who affixed the stickers is believed to be a licensed 310T mechanic in Ontario.
Shouldn’t DriveON have prevented this?
Last year, Ontario modernized and digitized its annual commercial vehicle inspection program, dubbing it DriveON. Approved inspection facilities were provided with tablets that were to be used to photograph parts and diligently document the inspection process.
As recently as July, the Ontario Trucking Association warned that the industry wasn’t prepared for the Aug. 1 rollout.
“As the Aug. 1 date approaches, there have been questions from industry about the readiness of the program and their ability to meet the new requirements,” the association said in a July release.
“We’ve been really waiting for DriveON implementation because we knew that it would eliminate all the fraud that’s been happening,” the shop owner told me.
We were able to identify the VIN on two units with the ATG inspection stickers. We entered them into the DriveON portal but no inspection histories were found. If not in the DriveON system, those vehicles should not be able to renew their plates, raising further questions about how the units are able to remain on the road.
Enforcement reaction
Convinced he had uncovered a fraudulent scheme that was keeping unsafe trucks and trailers on Ontario roads, the shop owner expected a swift reaction from the enforcement agencies that oversee truck safety in Ontario and the U.S. But so far, nothing has been done about it, to his knowledge.
Trucknews.com asked the shop owner why he believes this to be the case, despite supplied evidence that unsafe vehicles are being certified and allowed to operate on public roads.
“It’s like playing ping pong,” he suggested, noting every department he has contacted has referred him to another. “Everyone is really busy right now and I totally understand that might be a reason. Another reason might be, maybe it’s not monitored. They are not willing to investigate for some reason. No one just wants to do anything.”
In an email to Ontario Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria and related MTO officials, the shop owner wrote: “I have video evidence clearly showing this individual applying a U.S.-issued inspection sticker to a Canadian commercial vehicle in Mississauga just one week ago. I also have information about the origin of the stickers and how this operation began. Also, I can provide a list of local companies that utilize his services, posing a huge risk to their drivers and the public.”
An Aug. 20 follow-up went unanswered.
The consequences
An industry consultant we spoke to worries road safety is being compromised by the fraudulent issuing of FMCSA safety certificates, and those concerns are not unfounded. Trucknews.com learned of a mechanical breakdown this month in New York State involving a Canada-based trailer adorned with an ATG Repair inspection sticker.
Sources tell trucknews.com the trucking company owner called the Ontario mechanic who issued the sticker at the Loreland Avenue yard for advice. We’re told the mechanic traveled to the U.S. and conducted a quick fix, however, when it arrived at the Canadian border, the visibly damaged unit was pulled over by Niagara Regional Police and placed out of service. Trucknews.com obtained photos (below) of the affected trailer.
We also obtained the out-of-service report. The inspecting officer listed a litany of defects, including “driver’s [side] inner tire has steel cords exposed…bottom flange on frame at axle five cracked…axle five air bag deflated…axle five has no wheels, chained up to extensive frame damage.”
The most recent annual inspection done on the trailer, according to the ATG inspection decal attached to it, was in May 2025.
Have your say
This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.
-
Nice to see your opinion on this Rolf, any trucking company that I deal with for consulting, the first thing I give them is your “Bible” and tell them to read that book and abide by it. Now as for Ontario’s Minister of Transport, he will never turn on his own. Somewhere in his community he has a “Boss”, someone that pulls his strings. I drive the 401 everyday and as a 310S and T i can pick at least 5 safety defects on a unit and watch it go into the Trafalgar Rd. scale and exit the scale no issues. Now if I can do that on the fly, what is MTO doing wrong. MTO tells me their people are not licensed mechanics, they are just trained on what to look for, WRONG. They do not have the working knowledge, thats like asking a first year apprentice to rebuild a 18 spd. Eaton Road Ranger. He can’t he does not have the working knowledge. As a past fleet manager and my encounters with MTO sometimes have been mind blowing.
Very well written investigative reporting here. Unfortunately there are still bad apples out there. The DriveON system isn’t perfect, but definitely a step in the right directions. Costs of maintenance are high, but not worth the cost of cheating the system. Everyone else is under the same microscope. The worst case here is not increased costs, it is killing someone or some people. Everything has an opportunity cost and I am not willing to compromise on it.
-
We need to shutdown the people and companies involved in Ontario
I maybe wrong but I think jail time is the only solution.
I’m not surprised. I believe all COMMERCIAL VEHICLES, Should be inspected in the REGISTERED jurisdiction. And that Ghost VEHICLES Should be used to randomly check inspection quality. Also fast follow up on any complaints. Sure sounds like Ontario DOT Are dropping the ball here. Mind you I only held my Commercial Drivers License for 62 years. WHAT WOULD I KNOW ABOUT IT?
I believe that a license for a Mechanic can be suspended or cancelled by govt authorities for creating so many false inspection stickers without a proper inspection report or record of repair to the inspection report and endangering the trucker and the public.
-
This mechanic still operates daily on the same yards.
MTO, STO – they don’t seem to take any action about it. And yes, his 310T is active. Should we sign a petition to stop this? As a driver of the company truck, I’m saying, it’s so dangerous to drive these trucks and trailers, but who cares?
Makes it tougher for honest repair shops to compete when you get certified with no downtime.
In typical bureaucratic fashion the Province will pass the buck, twiddle its thumbs and pass the buck!
So I would like to put my two cents in. The digital inspection is a money making scam for repair shops most trucks and trailers never leave the shop Less than $3000 per visit when inspection takes place in Ontario, so the guy that said it’s between $700 and a $1000 he is lying.
The repair shops are making a killing at the trucking companies expense and at a time when there is very little money in the market, due to stupid government regulations and tariffs, politicians don’t care about truck drivers that is a fact, they bring them in by the boat loads and put Canadian trucks drivers out of work, to have your truck inspected in a USA state is not a bad thing if you are visual and understand that if it broke fix it and check your truck and trailer all the time keep it up to date should have many problems, but foreign workers and companies some that don’t even dispatch for Canada or the USA have no clue what trucking is like in the west, but again our politicians have hung good drivers and good companies out to dry for profit in their pockets, federal and state and provincial, but who’s going to listen a man that has over 5 million miles and still crawls under his truck to make sure it safe everyday, not so media guy or girl or a politician they think we know nothing, heads up we been places you only wished you could go.
Trucking in Ontario has been ruined. As a class A license holder since 1997, I’m appalled by the condition of Ontario based trucks. Many more inspections need to be conducted on the road. Scales are seldom open, police are rarely seen on highways. I could place a truck or trailer out of service just by it passing me on the highway, many times driving over the required 105 km/h regulated limit.
Undercutting rates leads to poorly maintained fleets. There just isn’t enough money left over for maintenance. I predicted that the new safety requirements would be somehow cheated, and it happened. Always working on another way to cheat the system. Illegally obtained licenses and out of service equipment are the two biggest safety concerns on our highways.
Once proud to be a trucker, no longer.
With all the new illegal truck yards infecting Caledon, I’m sure its as bad here.
This story is concerning. Our roads are full of trucks these days and if they aren’t safe who is making money giving out safety inspections. Russian nationals running a con game on our roads and taking risks with our citizens needs to be looked at severely. Thankfully someone with integrity saw all this. Do something MOT!
Thanks to the trucknews.com team for such a valuable article. I hope corruption goes away because that’s how countries and cultures start to decay and Canada is a respected nation that keeps its pride in being honest and go by the book. This is what makes Canada great, honesty and being ethic.
Very worrying indeed, the transport ministry of Canada should investigate deaper & also comuniacate with it’s u.s counterpart, this kind of shady practice is illegal & shouldn’t be permitted on any public roads across Canada & the u.s, i wonder what the government is doing about this. You did a good thing puting this out, tell your source the public tyanks them for their deligent actions & wanting to keep people safe, we need good & responsible people like them.
I know plenty of truck drivers across Québec tgat will be very up in arms about it when i tell them this news.
First they get licences with no proper training then fraudulent cvi stickers. And the sad thing is all the accidents going on and the stories in the news and tv , no names are reveled because of the liberal media protecting the immigration problem here and letting them endanger the public. Canada needs to do what the US is doing with an English test.
Great reporting guys, but let’s get more details on the driver’s and owner’s history. Nationality is the root cause including the government bodies protecting this illegal, unsafe practice at our expenses. It also has cut trucking rates to ridiculous all time lows. This needs to stop to protect the real truckers and owner operators here from this outside illegal cut throat attack on our good, safe trucking companies not to mention the safety’to the public. I’m an owner operator and have experience all of the above for 20 years plus and it’s getting a lot worse.
1 word …. Humboldt Saskatchewan. Get use to it, because this the norm now with all the corruption in government allowing this to happen. It starts at the top.
Commendable investigative reporting by James Menzies of has uncovered a deeply troubling issue affecting Ontario’s roads: fake annual safety inspection stickers are being affixed to commercial vehicles, allegedly sourced from questionable U.S.-based repair companies like ATG Repair.
These stickers—meant to certify that a vehicle has passed rigorous safety checks—are being applied without proper inspections, sometimes not even on U.S. soil. This loophole exploits the reciprocity agreement between Canada and the U.S., allowing Ontario operators to bypass local safety standards, including emissions testing.
Why This Matters?
Unsafe trucks and trailers are operating on Ontario roads, endangering drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.
The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) faces a serious challenge in maintaining road safety and enforcing compliance.
The lack of oversight in the U.S. system—where inspection stickers can be ordered online and issued without limits—contrasts sharply with Ontario’s stricter controls.
This is not just a regulatory failure—it’s a public safety emergency. Ontario’s roads must not become a dumping ground for unsafe equipment. We urge MTO to investigate thoroughly, tighten cross-border inspection protocols, and hold violators accountable.
Thank you to James Menzies for the outstanding investigative journalism that brought this issue to light. Your work is a vital service to the trucking industry and the public at large.
Where ever your license plate is from: Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Alberta, utah, Missouri. Your safety should come from the same province or state. The MTO and DOT allowing these trucks to come from Ontario and to get A U. S safety should not be allowed and the same goes for the US trucks, getting a Canadian safety.
This is unacceptable that these companies are getting away with this.All they care about is the money and if the owners and drivers are from foreign countries DEPORT them we need safe equipment on the roads and highways. These owners and drivers have lack of respect.
Great Reporting!!!
Until Driver Inc is dealt with, and serious penalties applied, this type of behavior will continue as there is no respect for Canadian law.
Sadly the Canadian authorities are not willing to enforce the law, as they worry about being called racists, when it is a cultural issue that needs to be dealt with.
Education is not the answer, stiff penalties are the answer to get people’s attention and that Canadian Law and Safety are important.
Good job done for the first time. Something is being done to ensure that safe equipment is operated in our Country, Canada.
It is almost as if the government prefers that these carriers are allowed to use these shortcuts.
One could come to the conclusion that by doing this freight rates will be depressed which is very good for many other industries. hmmmm. Makes you wonder doesn’t it?
I believe the fix for this loophole/fraud is not a difficult one. Scales still operate, when a scale MTO enforcement officer observes an FMCSA From this ATG entity, the unit (truck or trailer) gets a secondary inspection.
DriveOn is absolutely a step in the right direction and will continue to make roads safer in Ontario.
We just need to ensure that when bad actors attempt to sidestep regulations, that there is an appropriate response.
-
Now we just need to get the MTO to staff the scales so they’re open more than 5% of the time.
Wow. Not only shady driving schools in the Brampton area, but even more shady inspection practices. No wonder there are so many crashes and deaths on US and Canadian roads
The us system is not the same as the one Ontario has and the stickers are not regulated the same as for Drive on this system is a utter pile of s***
Interesting that the MOT can’t seem to find the time to investigate this Fraud! How many people need to be killed before something gets done?? Follow the $$$s!!
Hi – O.M.G. the same people over and over, where are the Government training programs? All trades spend 3 to 4 years of training, why is trucking 200 hours theory and practicum only? When will the Ontario Government upgrade a very unsafe driver training at this time.
Thank you James for bringing this criminal action to the forefront! You and your investigation cannot be swept under the carpet here in Ontario but I think that once the American authorities get wind of this they will work hard on bringing this to a halt and I’m sure arrests will be made! Here in Ontario if you are based here those American stickers must not be allowed on Ontario based equipment and the sooner this is outlawed the better!
Ontario government is failing us miserably. Safety is obviously of no concern to them. Typical of all governments lately, regardless of party!
I see the same sort of issues with repair reporting on private vehicles as well. Looking at the Carfax reports for many vehicles for sale in GTA shows years and years of service work done with no odometer reading and what do you know, 2015 car for sale with only 98000km even though it had 85000 on it when it was last recording in 2019….. Ontario needs to do better.
There’s lots of corruption in trucking industry in toronto and all over Canada unsafe driving interstate work LmIA…student work visa every driver who apply for PR must have to pay 500000 canadian.for citizen no work but for refugee lot of work .. if usa take action then it will happen ….
My husband and I ran our small trucking company for 26 years here in Ontario. We adhered to the rules and regulations. MTO regularly pulled out trucks over and inspected both truck and trailer. If the was an issue, we had to contact a mechanic to attend to the problem on the roadside. I cannot believe what I am reading in this article. No wonder there are numerous accidents happening involving transport trucks. Get these shops shut down, our lives depend on you.
Really appreciate your work this has take responsibility. Please follow your great work I’m a truck driver when I show the pictures it’s make angry.
“We were able to identify the VIN on two units with the ATG inspection stickers. We entered them into the DriveON portal but no inspection histories were found. If not in the DriveON system, those vehicles should not be able to renew their plates, raising further questions about how the units are able to remain on the road.”
I just purchased a light-duty vehicle with the same issue. It was registered as recently as summer 2025, yet there is no record of an inspection history on DriveON. Service Ontario is really dropping the ball here pushing through UNSAFE vehicles.
It is disappointing that this loophole has not yet been closed by MTO. It has existed for years and now it is part of HTA Regulation 174/22, which states: “(2) A vehicle displaying or carrying valid evidence of compliance with the periodic inspection requirements contained in Part 396, Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations of the United States Department of Transportation based on an inspection carried out in the United States of America is exempt from the requirements of section 85 of the Act.”
There is also legal precedent ruling this to be discriminatory. i.e.: if the inspection is considered acceptable, it must be acceptable whether the inspection was conducted in the USA or Canada.
All Canadian vehicles must be inspected in Canada, and if a vehicle arrives with an expired decal, they can be given time to get inspected. But, the vehicle must still be operated in safe condition.
Accepting US inspections is a loophole that is too easily exploited.