Just ahead of National Trucking Week, the Wellington Advertiser observed the crucial role that truck drivers undertake in maintaining the nation’s operations and driving the economy.

In an interview with Marco Beghetto of the Ontario Trucking Association, the newspaper highlighted NTW, how trucking is the lifeblood of Canada’s economy and how truck drivers are the first to step up and support Canadians in critical times, and how challenges like Driver Inc. are undermining, hard-working, compliant truck drivers and responsible carriers.

“We always have challenges. It’s an ever-changing fluid industry. But the biggest issue of the day for the industry of the last five years at least, is something called driver Inc.,” Beghetto told the Advertiser. “Driver Inc. is an operating system used by unscrupulous carriers to operate within the underground economy.”

“It’s the issue that has been plaguing the compliant, responsible industry. It clearly disrupts the playing field, because a company’s biggest or second biggest cost is often labour. Some companies pay their employees accordingly and are complying, while others are undercutting the system by masking their employees as contractors.”

Meanwhile, NTW serves as an opportunity to champion the industry while also raising awareness about the challenges the industry faces like the driver shortages, and the need for improved infrastructure are brought to the forefront of public discourse. 

By shedding light on these challenges, the week encourages conversations about how to make the trucking industry safer, more efficient, and more attractive to new generations of workers, Beghetto said.

Read full story here.