The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) welcomes a recent CBC News investigation that is helping to bring national attention to Driver Inc \u2013 the rampant labour and tax abuse scheme plaguing the trucking industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CBC report<\/a> reinforces what the trucking industry has been warning about for a decade \u2013 that Driver Inc. is a systemic and sophisticated scheme hurting the Canadian economy by robbing government coffers of critical revenue required for building Canadian infrastructure and programs; exploits workers, and puts the travelling public at risk by degrading road safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The news article and broadcast clearly highlight the dangerous rise of Driver Inc., a practice where trucking companies purposefully misclassify employee drivers as contractors. This allows companies to evade taxes and bypass critical labour standards, pocketing the costs associated with paying certain business taxes, overtime, paid sick leave, vacation pay, and providing workplace health and safety protections, among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Worse, Driver Inc companies that routinely break tax and labour laws and standards typically base their entire business model on all areas of non-compliance, which leads to major violations in truck and driver safety, insurance, emissions and environmental rules, immigration, zoning and other bylaws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CTA has been corresponding for months with CBC\u2019s investigative team on the story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As of today, the report has been viewed over 280,000 times on Youtube<\/a> and X<\/a> combined, and sparked hundreds of conversations throughout social media and news radio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe believe that in some parts of Canada, at least a third of the companies and drivers are participating in this,\u201d said CTA President and CEO Stephen Laskowski. \u201cIt\u2019s a $1-billion tax evasion scheme that gives offenders a 30 per cent competitive advantage \u2013 at the expense of law-abiding businesses and Canadian taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report details the account of a truck driver who emigrated to Canada and who was misclassified by companies and robbed of nearly $40,000 in pay; and highlights concerns of compliant operators who are being squeezed out of the market by carriers operating in the underground economy who take advantage of Driver Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others raised red flags around road safety, citing unsafe practices from companies that prioritize profit over proper training and vehicle standards. One driver details how poor training undermines road safety as Driver Inc companies cut corners by putting unqualified drivers on the road, even after crashes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the federal government has taken steps \u2014 such as making misclassification illegal in 2021 and tightening rules in 2024 to shift the burden of proof to employers \u2014 CTA has been adamant that enforcement remains inadequate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the report, CRA asserts it is not aware of CTA’s underlying analysis that found at least $1 billion in lost tax revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe find it\u00a0difficult to reconcile this statement with the agency\u2019s long-standing awareness of this issue,\u201d CTA responded on X. \u201cThe CRA has been examining the problem for years, has met with the CTA IPTV<\/a>, reviewed extensive evidence of (PSB) misuse, and identified significant tax leakage through its own studies, pilot projects, and enforcement efforts.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n