Flip Flops, no English and can’t strap a load – Canada’s trucking industry has a huge problem

By: Greg Staley

Written On: 2025-08-28

Recently, an illegal immigrant trucker caused an accident in Fort Pierce, Florida, that killed three people. The driver then failed an English and road sign test. This has sparked a nationwide conversation about the issue of temporary foreign workers in the Canadian trucking industry.

According to Trucking News, abuse of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program in the trucking industry is rampant. The trucking industry accounts for more than 10% of program violations, and most of the financial penalties remain unpaid. This echoes the sentiments expressed by Sunny, a Punjabi-born trucker who blew the whistle on the corruption in the industry in his interview with Mocha Bezirgan of Media Bezirgan.

In the interview, Sunny became extremely heated in describing how the abuse has harmed the Canadian trucking industry. He spoke about corrupt companies that are putting good Canadian companies out of business and how they’re underpaying unskilled, non-citizen drivers and even neglecting truck maintenance. The issues have become so bad in the industry that Sunny fears that he could get beaten up because people are frustrated with “these Indian drivers that wear flip-flops and don’t take s*** seriously.” For context, Sunny was born in Canada.

Diverge Media sought to confirm the allegations made in Sunny’s interview, and we were startled at our findings. We spoke to a truck driver who has been working in the industry for 10 years with a clean driving record. The driver indicated that they’re struggling to make ends meet and contemplating the idea of selling their truck altogether. The driver also told Diverge Media they’ve been out of work for two weeks because no one is willing to pay them what is required to pay their basic expenses of gas and maintenance, let alone make a profit!

The driver also told Diverge Media that they’ve been blowing the whistle on these issues for a long time, but each time they do, they’re met with the all too familiar and dismissive phrase of “don’t be racist.”

As Sunny highlighted in his interview with Mocha Bezirgan, these companies hiring TFW’s are undercutting the market. This was confirmed by Diverge Media when we spoke with a logistics broker who wished to remain anonymous. The broker confirmed much of what Sunny said in his interview.

Flip Flops, no English and can’t strap a load

When speaking to a logistics broker in the trucking industry, they told Diverge Media that they’ve spoken to customers with a wide range of complaints. The complaints ranged from drivers who couldn’t back into loading docks (basic CDL skill required to pass licensing), drivers who had no clue how to strap down or secure their loads, and it wasn’t infrequent to hear of drivers showing up in sandals who couldn’t speak English. They’ve also had customers take the loads off of trucks after foreign-born drivers would show up in sandals and not know how to chain their loads.

The logistics broker also noted that there are guys making careers of writing CDL tests for others. I have personally heard this account from an instructor when I received my air-brake endorsement. They informed me that it was common for Sikh students to have other people take the test on their behalf for a fee. Translation: There are people on the roads who have no clue how to drive that 80,000+ pound transport truck, and they’re putting the entire public at risk.

Those who claim they can’t find qualified workers in Canada are being dishonest

It’s long been the talk around kitchen tables in Canada for years. That is, that TFW’s are driving down wages. On the other hand, you have businesses like Eassons transportation group that rely heavily on the use of foreigners to staff their company. According to Eassons CEO Trevor Bent, about 70% of the companies drivers were recruited as foreign workers.

Unsurprisingly, according to Indeed, the company pays 16% below the national average and only 54% believe they’re paid a fair wage at the company. It’s companies like these that are often the first to proclaim that the TFW program is essential to staff their companies. However, they conveniently omit that they’re underpaying drivers. That leads us back to the kitchen table talk – if a company paid a fair wage, you’d have Canadian-born citizens lining up to work for you.

The Canadian Trucking Association is finally recognizing that there is a problem

After the tragedy in Florida, it appears the Canadian Trucking Association (CTA) is finally recognizing the problem in Canada as well. On their website, they wrote: “the non-compliant segment of the Canadian trucking industry which erode the integrity the driver licensing, training, safety compliance and immigration systems, must be dealt with immediately.”

CTA President Stephen Laskowski also noted that “the underground economy in trucking uses immigration abuse schemes that see thousands of truck drivers in Canada on work permits being paid archaic wages, like from the 1980s.” This only addresses part of the problem, because, with thousands of TFW’s flooding the trucking labour market, many are seeing their wages fall.

If our politicians care at all about the problem, they’ll push past the superficial claims of racism and protect the TFW workers that are being taken advantage of, close all the loopholes being abused that are associated with the TFW program, and protect the trucking industry.

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Diverge Media reached out to Easson Transportation Group before publishing our work, but did not receive a response in time for this article.