Unscrupulous Driver Inc. companies that cheat on taxes and manipulate workers are expanding their presence in Atlantic Canada, warned Chris McKee, executive director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA).<\/p>\n
This business model, \u201cis not good for our industry, illegal, not a level playing field, and detrimental to carriers that go by the book,\u201d he said during APTA\u2019s conference in Charlottetown on Oct. 19.<\/p>\n
Trucknews.com reports how McKee explained how the practice is growing in eastern Canada.<\/p>\n
Trevor Bent, APTA\u2019s past chairman said it is increasingly important to squash the practice to maintain a competitive balance within the marketplace. He added that carriers that have been in business for decades are going to have to make tough decisions.<\/p>\n
, \u201cThe practice of creating corporations to skirt your responsibilities \u2013 payroll, tax remittances \u2013 is not lending to an overall healthy environment within the trucking industry nor is it lending to a positive sustainable one socially.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bent noted that Nova Scotia welcomed 12,000 new residents in the last three months. He said this puts pressure on the health system, infrastructure, roads and schools. \u201cIt\u2019s moving beyond a trucking issue, it is now a social issue,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
Geoffrey Wood, senior vice-president, policy, Canadian Trucking Alliance said the Canada Revenue Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) are doing some work but more needs to be done.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, carriers in the Atlantic provinces are reporting other \u00a0headwinds affecting businesses, including lower freight volumes and the driver shortage, but they say they\u2019re confident they will ride out the current challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers are getting creative as to how they retain drivers during this period, they know things will eventually come back up,\u201d said McKee.<\/p>\n
Volumes are down, capacity up, rates depressed, and equipment costs are going upward next year another 10 to 15%,\u201d Bent added.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s a waiting game to see how that flushes out. How many folks can stay in it long enough in a survival environment. Rates are getting pounded, there is a recessionary feel to the economic landscape today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding to the pain is the new 10 sick days requirement for federally regulated fleets, forcing some to hire additional drivers to fill in the gaps, increasing costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are behind on equipment repairs and there are delays,\u201d Bent said, adding to overtime costs. He said it is harder to recruit people in the trades and it puts pressure on those who are working. \u201cIt is a challenge for retention and increases burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this issue also has a silver lining. Aligning with other sectors that compete for workers on labor issues like sick days, makes the trucking industry more competitive, Bent said.<\/p>\n
He added that the industry is nimble and will adapt to the situation. \u201cWe can show that we are taking care of our people, making it attractive to new workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Full stories here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unscrupulous Driver Inc. companies that cheat on taxes and manipulate workers are expanding their presence in Atlantic Canada, warned Chris McKee, executive director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA)….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,16,28],"tags":[219,30,31,77,21,32,33],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admin-tax","category-business-conditions","category-labour-hr-driver-shortage","tag-apta","tag-capacity","tag-driver-inc","tag-driver-shortage","tag-economy","tag-enforcement","tag-freight-market"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}