The recent arrest of eight people in Ontario accused of offering or accepting bribes in exchange for circumventing road test requirements and illegally obtaining commercial drivers’ licenses is another example of the rampant lawlessness debasing the trucking industry, says the Ontario Trucking Association.
OTA has been calling on Queen’s Park for months to increase efforts to enforce existing regulations and implement new policies to combat the truck safety crisis in Ontario and restore law and order across the sector.
Ontario in recent years has seen a flurry of investigations, arrests and prosecutions of commercial drivers’ examination and licensing schemes and fraudulent truck driving schools, which circumvent residency rules and Mandatory Entry-Level Training requirements, among other violations.
A CBC investigative report last year highlighted how aspects of truck driver testing in Ontario has been compromised by “bribes, forged documents and rigged testing.”
“This latest case just reinforces just how systemic, organized and widespread the lawlessness and corruption we are all witnessing in trucking really is,” says OTA president Stephen Laskowski. “As a consequence, there is now a significant market for untrained, unprofessional dangerous drivers who share the road with the public. The carriers that employ these drivers appear to have no fear of government reprisal as they know full well that 80% of the trucking companies based in Ontario have not been inspected by the government and their poorly trained drivers can easily avoid detection as the inspection stations meant to protect the motoring public are not open 24/7. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
The issue of lawlessness and erosion of safety in the trucking industry has caught the public’s attention. Consequently, Ottawa has convened a series of committee meetings, through the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, since to examine the crisis. After a short winter break, the committee resumed this week, hearing testimony from victims and community groups impacted by eroding truck safety and insufficient enforcement.
The Caledon Community Road Safety Advocacy (CCRSA) Group, which represents over 3,000 residents to advocate for increased safety oversight of the trucking industry, testified in Ottawa how Caledon, Ont and other communities are plagued with fraudulent trucking companies; illegal truck yards and storage and environmental abuses; serious truck crashes and poorly trained drivers committing countless safety violations daily; and, recently, a spike in extortion, violence and organized crime linked to trucking companies in the area.
“Our community has reached its limits,” said Amanda Corbett, one of the founders of the CCRSA. “All levels of government need to be accountable to working consistently and collaboratively to make meaningful changes.”
The group has reached out to provincial leaders repeatedly to discuss the community’s concerns, and Corbett expressed frustration they have received very little response. “I do think there’s quite a lot happening in Ontario that is also causing problems in other provinces. There really needs to be an ongoing conversation and a willingness of government to do what is within its purview to make real change. One of the (solutions) is for the province of Ontario and other provinces dealing with this to act on the recommendations that have been made.”
OTA has made several recommendations (below) to the Ontario government, which would reaffirm its commitment to restoring law and order to the trucking industry.
“A growing segment of our industry increasingly is less trustworthy when it comes to compliance and playing by the rules. Some of measures we have championed over many years, and the province has put into action, unfortunately, have not been close to enough,” says OTA Chair Mark Bylsma. “The government of Ontario must restore public safety and unequivocally stand side by side with compliant, responsible and lawful carriers and truck drivers to put an end to this crisis.”
To ensure clarity and measurable actions, OTA is calling on the Government of Ontario to:
- Most importantly, eliminate the Satisfactory-Unaudited safety rating category under the CVOR system. Most trucking companies which have been assigned this safety rating category are in operation without ever having a site visit.
- Ensure truck inspection stations (TIS) in key locations are open 24/7 with a priority on various critical locations;
- Stop the subsidization of unsafe trucking fleets by closing long-standing regulatory loopholes through government controlled and managed insurance programs;
- End the illegal truck yards threatening safety and ruining the livability of citizens in communities like Caledon;
- The return of Operation Deterrence enforcement activities and inspection volumes with sustained WSIB, ESDC, CRA, OPP, Immigration and other authorities at TIS locations throughout Ontario;
- The announcement that truck driver licenses will move to a vocational license framework and that truck driving schools will have strict regulatory oversight and regular audits;
- A pause on the Ontario Immigration Nominee Program (OINP) for truck drivers and the creation of a known employer program;
- The escalation of WSIB misclassification audits on high-risk carriers based on ESDC & CRA data sharing agreements.