Trucks are seen driving along the Highway 401 from Franklin Blvd. in Cambridge Ont., on May 19.Keito Newman/The Globe and Mail
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Trucking, which employs an estimated 300,000 drivers in Canada, was once a path to a middle-class life. Today, the essential sector is riddled with accusations of wage theft, exploitation and safety lapses, despite persistent warnings from industry experts and drivers themselves.
The Globe filed more than 30 freedom of information requests, analyzed datasets from transport regulators across the country, and conducted interviews with more than 20 drivers and industry insiders to expose these challenges – and the findings are stark.
The investigation found that weak oversight and regulatory loopholes are letting predatory trucking companies run roughshod over vulnerable drivers.
It also charted the explosive growth of employee misclassification, an illegal business model that sees employers falsely categorize drivers as self-employed to evade payroll contributions and strip workers of basic rights. In some areas, such as in Windsor and Brantford, Ont., the total number of drivers in this category increased by more than 300 per cent over a decade, while median earnings in some cities dropped to the poverty line.
On Wednesday, June 3 at 12 p.m. ET, investigative reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh and data editor Mahima Singh answered reader questions about their months-long investigation into the long-haul trucking industry and the many concerns they’ve heard from drivers and experts.
How pervasive is the misclassification business model? What pressures and safety concerns does it cause for truck drivers? How has Ottawa taken action and is that enough to tackle the scale of the problem? Read our responses here.