Driver Inc., driver shortage among leading files for new CTA chairman
MONTREAL, Que. – Jean-Claude Fortin recalls precisely the day he obtained his CDL. It was March 11, 1961. He was 17 years old.
Decades later, he finds himself serving as the latest chairman of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA).
“I have been in trucking for over 60 years. I was 10 years old when I started to ride in a truck with my father,” he recalled in his first interview, just a day after taking on the CTA role.
It leaves him with plenty of experience to draw upon.
For more than 30 years, he ran one of the oldest trucking companies in Quebec, JE Fortin, founded in 1923. Then his daughters took the reins. Annie is the head of JE Fortin; Caroline is the president of TSX, acquired in 2009.
Throughout that time, Fortin has been a strong supporter of his provincial association, too, serving 20 years as a director of the Quebec Trucking Association (QTA). Annie succeeded him there. Caroline was also president of the group’s 2020 congress, which was postponed because of Covid-19, but will take on the role next year when the event returns.
“Membership in the association brings us connections. We need the association to defend industry issues at the provincial and federal levels. It allows to be informed first, to know what is coming and to be compliant from a security point of view,” Fortin said.
He begins his term at the helm of CTA a few months later than expected due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which presents the trucking industry with a new series of challenges.
In 60 years, he has never seen anything like it. Neither the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s, nor 9/11 hurt the economy and industry so badly.
“If my father [Eugene] was alive, he could tell you about the Great Depression. From what he was telling me, it was similar to what is happening now. “
As the economy and industry try to recover, CTA’s role is to collect and transmit as much information as possible to its members, at the provincial and national levels, to help guide decisions, says Fortin. The alliance also plans to intensify its lobby efforts with the federal government, and he encourages the provincial associations to do the same, supporting programs to help businesses in these turbulent times.
The Driver Inc. situation – which sees fleets misclassifying employees as independent contractors – is a particular concern to him.
“This is a phenomenon that is spreading across the country,” says the new CTA chairman. “With the rates that some companies charge around us, one could wonder how they manage to make money. These companies do not pay withholding taxes, vacations, days off. It is a ploy that has perverse effects, which does not protect the drivers, and which causes unfair competition.”
The shortage of drivers and other personnel remains a concern, too. For that, the CTA wants to organize a national social media campaign to improve the industry’s image and promote trucking as a career for young people.
“The current pandemic is not helping to attract labor. Shippers must also be made aware of the importance of respecting our drivers,” Fortin says.
Canada’s pending ELD mandate is also a leading focus, but he remains confident that the transition will go well, with enough certified suppliers to serve the market.
There will certainly be other changes to come, but change has been a constant during every decade he’s been in the trucking industry.
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.
You don’t get to cry about a driver shortage while simultaneously refusing to hire new drivers. That’s just not how it works. Where are these 22,000 vacancies I keep hearing about? I have applications out for almost every job posting on indeed within 100km of my home. I’ve applied at every mega i can think of. The closest I’ve come was an invitation to apply for some rediculous “finishing school” with 2 year contract. Unless you want to cut me a $12,000 cheque to reimburse me for the MELT training i paid for I’m not signing a contract. And I’m not running team for 2 years. If team driving is part of new driver training then it should have started along side the melt course and instead of struggling to raise funds for school i should have been earning the whole time not going broke.
The problem is all truck drivers on payroll need to make a min wage rates for O T R truck drivers of $27.50 plus overtime ( after 10 hours per day)once a truck drivers has 5000 hours experience. Many of these incorporated truck drivers came as foreign students or became lease ops. Untill the treatment of all truck drivers that are here on foreign permits has min pay standards and housing support they should not be allowed. I am on the board of a nonprofit that is finding housing for homeless former truck and bus drivers.
As the manager of a small trucking company, the most concerning issue we face to day is INSURANCE.
We cannot hire/find/train anyone that fits a continually narrowing list of insurance dictated perimeters.
We, have been unable to replace our core staff of eight, highly trained, competent individuals that had worked here for the past 10-20 years.
I would hope he instead would address the issue of truck driver treatment and trucking companies that are C T A or provincial members that have wage claims or owner ops working for O T A or B C T A members that are unhappy with their treatment or pay. No company should be able to import truck drivers into Canada until . The insurance companies and the Ont government comes up with a plan to provide insurance for all new truck drivers for the first 24 months after getting their commercial permit. The only reason there will be a truck driver shortage is because when young people and others in Ontario Non profit groups see former injured workers including truck drivers in the homeless shelters or living on the street. We need to fix truck parking at receivers and shippers. The Ford government along with the O T A needs to provide safe housing for higher risk truck drivers who cross the border and any mechanics or other workers that come in a work permit.