Safety is the new currency in Canadian Trucking! Has the change begun in trucking? There’s been lots of problems in the trucking industry over the last many years and things have gotten worse to the point where associations, truck drivers, and government officials have all started to take notice on both sides of the border of the increase in crashes or reckless driver behaviour and want something done about it.
Trucking has started to take action and the government is moving forward as well. We visited a number of different events over the last little while to understand exactly what is changing in the industry and noticed things seem to be moving faster on the south side of the border in the United States than they are in Canada. Both sides are affected equally because of the big cross border trade in North America.
So what have we seen? Well if we look at some of the episodes that we’ve had on the Lead Pedal Podcast where we’ve talked about carriers and safety people are starting to bring solutions to the table like the Carrier Integrity Pact, which will allow shippers, drivers, and government officials to find out exactly which carriers are operating above board and which in the industry are safe to work for. This is a big because as a driver you want to know that the carrier you’re working for is not only operating properly, but is paying you on time and running safe equipment. They need to make sure that you will get home safe and back to your families. It will help shippers decide on which carriers to use helping in making sure that rates stay at proper operating levels.
This coincides with the Red Seal movement that’s been going on in the last couple of years in trucking. Could you imagine if you as a driver could tell which are the safe operating carriers and if Red Seal approved can only apply to those carriers? It’s going to improve your career and the whole structure of the trucking industry. It will change the way trucking jobs are created, the way drivers are hired, and the way freight moves up and down the road.
When we look at some of the events we’ve been going to we see this again in the skills competitions. The Central Ontario Skills Competition for drivers had one of the biggest events they’ve had in recent years. They had to shut down during the pandemic and drivers from many different parts of the industry came to participate to show off their skills and it shows us where improvements need to be made or who the top performers are in our industry. This is also helping showcase to the public that it takes experience and skill to drive a commercial vehicle down the roadways.
We also attended skills competition for the Ministry of Transportation. This is something we had not seen before, but has been going on behind the scenes for a long time. This is a great skills competition where inspectors are competing against each other on how to best inspect vehicles, how much time it takes, and how much experience is needed. It outlines possible problems in the inspection process and as we know the MTO and a lot of the enforcement agencies across North America have been put on alert that they need to do better and be open more to get some of these bad trucking companies off of the road. This is one way that they’re improving their own skills and they have said that they are going to be opening inspection stations much more in the future. They couldn’t do this earlier because of manpower situations and are on a big recruiting program right now trying to get more inspectors into the field. We need to make sure that our highways and roadways are safe for all users especially those with commercial vehicles..
When you talk with people like Brian Fielkow who wrote a book called Make Safety Happen and has been in the trucking industry for decades talking about safety, he breaks down that safety needs to change. Operations and drivers all need to work together to be one cohesive safe workplace. This is very important for the whole trucking industry and we discussed this on many podcast episodes throughout the month..
We also showcase some of the information that came from panels at the Private Motor Truck Council from their conference which happened in June 2026. It brought many different issues together like safety in the workplace highlighting if you don’t say something that might be a problem for not only you or the company, but also a loss of life to someone else. The benchmarking survey highlighted issues across North America in trucking, training, and freight services on both sides of the border allowing us to see where we need to work together to improve the industry as a whole making it safe for everyone.
In hindsight change has begun in the industry. We’re seeing more discussion on the important topics, we’re seeing more carriers and people get involved realizing that a safe industry is what we need in order to move forward for the future. People are seeing that we also need more action and really tackle problems instead of just talking about them for long periods of time. We’ve allowed our industry to deteriorate and we are now at the bottom. If we don’t revive it soon and change the way that we are operating we are going to be in some real trouble. In the future I’m confident from what I’ve seen over the last little while and at events that I’ve attended that there is a passion for the industry. There are people that are working hard to change the industry for the better and looking at different ways to do that. I’m excited to see what happens for the near future in trucking both on the carrier side and driver side of the industry. So join us on the podcast for a lot of these discussions and to learn more and get involved. Let’s change our industry for the better!
About the Author
Bruce Outridge is an industry veteran for over 40 years with 25 of those behind the wheel as a professional truck driver. For the last 15 years Bruce has been working in training and media for the industry and is currently the host / producer of Lead Pedal Media, The Lead Pedal Podcast, and Lead Pedal Radio. He is a member of a number associations in the industry and can be found covering and attending many industry events within Canada. Learn more about Bruce Outridge and Lead Pedal Media at www.leadpedalmedia.com
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