Trucks and other vehicles travel on a highway in Alberta in a file photo. Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock
Alberta is stepping up efforts to make trucking safer in the province, shutting down a number of driving schools and commercial trucking companies that it says are operating below acceptable standards.
The province has ordered five driver training schools to close, suspended operations for 13 commercial trucking companies, sent 39 “disciplinary letters,” applied more than $100,000 in fines, issued six action plans to fix issues, and revoked the licences of 12 driving instructors, according to an Oct. 3 government announcement.
“Anyone cutting corners or operating unsafe trucks will be removed from our roads,” Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen said. “Alberta truckers have earned a reputation as some of the most trusted drivers in the country, and we will not allow a few bad actors to undermine that trust.”
Alberta said it’s also working to boost information sharing with the federal government and cracking down on “chameleon” trucking carriers who change their names or locations to circumvent provincial oversight. The province said it’s also reinforcing rules related to the Driver Inc. practice, in which companies evade payroll taxes and benefits by hiring drivers as independent contractors.
“These drivers often lack proper training and oversight and are vulnerable to exploitation,” the province wrote in its Oct. 3 statement. “In July 2025, a week-long commercial driver status and classification check stop revealed that 20 percent of the 195 drivers stopped were suspected of being misclassified, including several temporary foreign workers.”
Alberta’s move comes amid growing national concern about trucking safety and a series of deadly trucking accidents across Canada in recent months, including a collision on Oct. 5 in rural Ontario that killed two people.
The trucking issue is currently being studied at the federal level before the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. In briefing material submitted this month, the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario (TTSAO) wrote that the Driver Inc. model is a particular safety concern.
“The Driver Inc model has fostered collusion between carriers and unscrupulous schools, resulting in compressed programs, document falsification, and the exploitation of trainees,” TTSAO wrote, adding that this includes undertrained drivers, foreign workers pressured into unsafe work to keep their work visa, and truck fleets that are in poor repair and dangerous on the roads.
Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval, the party’s transport critic, held a press conference Oct. 6 with members of the trucking industry during which they announced 10 matters of concern and called for an official inquiry from the federal government into the exploitation of truck drivers, the creation of a public registry of non-compliant companies, and a ban on temporary foreign workers driving as incorporated contractors.
“For us, it’s important to resolve the crisis in the trucking industry because there are jobs in Quebec that are in danger,” Barsalou-Duval said in French.
Quebec truckers protested in several cities last month demanding stricter rules and improved safety practices in the industry.
