Justice for Truck Drivers and West Coast Trucking Association released a report on February 9, 2026 that exposes the crisis facing the road transport sector. The findings demonstrate that truck drivers are facing declining wages, unpaid hours of work, rampant wage theft, and serious health and safety risks–pushing many to the breaking point. Together, these challenges are making it increasingly difficult to maintain a livelihood in the industry that is critical to Canada’s economy.
The report is based on a survey of over 400 drivers, conducted by members of Justice for Truck Drivers and West Coast Trucking Association. The firsthand experience of truck drivers themselves is sorely missing from policy debates about the changing landscape of trucking in Canada. The goal of the survey and report is to reintroduce the voice of drivers to these debates.
Trucking moves 78% of goods in Canada. This sector is the backbone of the Canadian economy, yet drivers, essential to this sector, are facing deteriorating wages and working conditions. As one driver said,
“The industry is not what it was 10 or 15 years ago. You must work 16 hours a day, continuous, in order to keep your job and make a living when you drive long haul. The rates on the loads are very low. It’s the brokers and the companies who are taking in all of the money at the expense of employees. That’s what’s changed over the last few years. That’s an incentive for wage theft. And it’s why employers are charging drivers for things they never used to before. There should be a fixed minimum wage for both local and long-haul drivers.”
While debates about the state of the trucking industry have focused on misclassification; drivers know that this is only one symptom of broader issues in the sector. Those broader issues include declining wages, unpaid work, and insufficient enforcement of labour laws—all downstream effects of the deregulation of the trucking industry that began in the 1980s.
The report makes several recommendations about how the federal government can improve conditions for truck drivers:
- Set minimum pay rates.
- Pay drivers for all work time.
- Close the gaps in labour standards and enforcement
See coverage of the report launch below:
- https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-long-haul-truckers-susceptible-to-wage-theft-survey-shows/?login=true
- https://www.trucknews.com/human-resources/truck-drivers-at-breaking-point-as-report-details-widespread-wage-theft/1003208911/
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/report-suggests-wage-theft-labour-violations-remain-major-problems-in-trucking-industry-9.7082127