When employers push drivers’ pay down, you can bet they’re padding their margins out of the safety budget too. The cheapest bosses are the ones most likely to defer maintenance, build schedules that leave no room for rest, and keep equipment on the road that shouldn’t be.
That’s why Teamsters Canada is taking part in the International Transport Workers’ Federation’s Safe Rates Week of Action. The research is consistent: pay drivers properly and accident rates go down. Employers are then far less likely to cut corners, and people stay in the industry longer.
Nowhere is the race to the bottom more deliberate than Driver Inc. The scheme reclassifies employees as contractors to dodge basic labour laws and safety obligations. It targets recent immigrants and marginalized workers, punishes carriers who play by the rules, and puts exhausted drivers on roads with the rest of us.
The Teamsters were among the first to call out the Driver Inc scam. After years of pressure, the government is finally starting to act, but it’s nowhere near enough. The problem ends with real enforcement: more inspections, audits with teeth, and penalties that cost offenders more than the scheme saves them. Ottawa needs to step up its game.
There’s a reason the worst actors fight unionization hardest. The right to organize, bargain, and strike is protected by the Canadian Charter, and in road transport it’s how safer roads get built. Teamsters Canada will defend that right at every table.
Transport workers around the world face the same squeeze. Teamsters Canada represents over 50,000 of them here at home, organized and ready to push back. This week, our members stand with transport workers everywhere.
