Driver Inc is a labour and tax scheme where bad actors in the trucking industry misclassify employee drivers as a Personal Services Business – a deliberate misrepresentation that lets them evade payroll taxes, deny benefits, and disregard basic labour standards; while drivers avoid paying the proper income taxes or any income taxes at all. For a decade, governments at every level  turned a blind eye to this illegal practice, which creates an uneven playing field, undermining honest, compliant businesses that follow the law.

83 carrier members, representing 10,600 trucks, responded to the survey. Collectively, they said they received nearly 18,000 applications over the last six months from potential truck drivers. Out of those who had been screened or interviewed for a job, an average of 36 percent indicated they wanted to work under the Driver Inc/misclassified PSB model rather than be an employee under payroll or true owner-operator that owns and maintains their own equipment.

Even after the carrier companies explained they would not illegally misclassify workers and drivers would need to own their own units to be considered a legal independent contractor, nearly half (49%) refused the job outright.

Fifty-three of 82 respondents are based in Ontario. Ten are in Alta; four in BC; four MB; five in Atlantic Canada; five in Quebec and one in Sask.

Nearly half (47%) of all Ontario-based respondents said applicants interviewed asked to work as misclassified drivers, and 65 percent of those refused the job altogether when told the company would not bend the rules.

Alarmingly, half of Ontario carriers said between 50- and 100-percent of all applicants demanded to work in the underground economy – and 13 carriers said over 75 percent of those looking for a job would only work as Driver Inc.

“Across Canada it’s becoming increasingly difficult for companies that want to obey the law to hire anyone legally – and in some markets in Ontario, it’s almost impossible to do so,” said CTA President Stephen Laskowski.

“The underground economy is out of control. By disregarding this lawlessness, Ottawa and many provincial governments have created conditions whereby honest, responsible companies that want to hire workers cannot do so because working in the underground trucking economy has become so normalized that an increasing number of potential workers in Canada refuse to work legally.”

“If the party that wins next week’s election is truly serious about creating legitimate, well-paying jobs that protect workers’ human rights, then they need to get serious about fixing the out-of-control underground economy in trucking – immediately.”