Recently the federal government introduced the One Canadian Economy Act, which highlighted the need for building projects and eliminating trade barriers in the national interest. In an op-ed column originally published on June 24 by iPolitics, a national publication read by policy makers, business leaders and the media, THRC CEO Angela Splinter stated that if the government is calling for swift action the basics of trucking and logistics need to be addressed urgently. The op-ed appears below:

It seems Canada is no longer resting on its laurels. After years of tepid economic progress, lagging GDP and productivity growth, and a cozy relationship with red tape that keeps so much from getting done, the federal government is taking aim at the status quo.

Bill C-5, otherwise known as the One Canadian Economy Act, is the battle plan, laying out the federal government’s approach to buy Canadian by removing internal trade barriers, advancing major projects of national interest, increasing the flow of goods, getting our resources to export markets, and supporting labour mobility.

And while the government can certainly be applauded for this collection of ambitious goals, the success of Bill C-5 will very much rest on the shoulders of a group of hard-working, everyday Canadians who keep our economy running – the 700,000 plus workers in trucking and logistics — almost half of which are truck drivers. But Canada simply doesn’t have enough of them.

In fact, Trucking HR Canada’s most recent labour market information projects that 40,400 jobs in trucking and logistics will be vacant in 2030. And while new 2025 data shows some temporary relief in terms of demand – Canada’s shortage of qualified truck drivers is a perennial issue that cyclically and consistently rears its head. It is a serious business concern for a sector that quite literally drives our economy forward every single day. Indeed, nearly everything we buy, sell and consume in Canada gets moved on a truck, not to mention that much of what we sell to other nations arrives at our ports on a truck.

According to Transport Canada estimates, trucks hauled the dominant proportion (77.7 per cent) of the total volume of goods moved within Canada in 2020, while 22.2 per cent of goods moved by rail, and 0.1 per cent moved by air. It’s no wonder then, that the average annual GDP of the core trucking and logistics sector was $45.2 billion between 2013 and 2022. Not only do more than two thirds of Canadian goods move on trucks, but the sector itself is a significant part of our economy and is a key success driver across this government’s stated priorities — infrastructure, housing, manufacturing and food supply are stalled without a solid and steady supply of qualified truck drivers.

With all this in mind, it is concerning that we so rarely hear policymakers talk about trucking and logistics in a time of great ambitions around launching nation-building projects, increasing labour mobility, and removing internal trade barriers. Simply put, the one Canadian economy we do have, let alone the one our government has committed to creating through its aim at the status quo, will get nowhere fast if there are no boots on the pedals.

Which is why the federal government needs to prioritize trucking and logistics within the Prime Minister’s roadmap for economic growth. That means taking a stronger approach to transforming the Temporary Foreign Worker Program so that well-paid and qualified workers from other nations can join reputable employers in this essential industry, and supporting multi-year training, grants and awareness programs so that more Canadians not only consider a career in trucking and logistics — but will be enabled in their pursuit of one.

Industry and business leaders have known for years that the right mix of programs and supports will be essential to our continued economic growth, and that trucks on the road will be just as much a sign of Canadian nation-building and prosperity as new innovations in artificial intelligence, increased critical mineral exports, or new infrastructure. Because if Canada is truly going to face the moment with urgency and build an economy that is stronger and more resilient, our policymakers at the helm will need to remember the importance of the Canadian workers that keep it moving.

These days, it’s hard to know what to expect beyond the unexpected. Uncertainty is the new normal.

Just as freight conditions appear to be improving, rising trade tensions and political shifts are shaking things up again. Canada-U.S. trade relations remain uncertain, and the trucking and logistics sector faces disruption.

Rough roads — and unexpected detours — lie ahead.

For employees, uncertainty, economic instability, job security worries, and rising costs can take a toll. As a leader, you may not have all the answers, but you can take action to support your team, keep morale up, and drive productivity forward.

Here are 3 actions to help you get started:

1. Communication is key

Challenging times present an opportunity to support staff, build trust, and enhance your corporate reputation. The best way to do all that? Communicate.

Workplace research consistently shows a gap between the level of communication employees need from leadership during tough times and what leaders actually provide.

The more you share, the better you can prevent anxiety, rumours, and misinformation.

These are uncertain times for everyone – including leaders. Acknowledge uncertainty, show genuine concern, and reinforce respect in your workplace. It’s okay to say you are monitoring developments and discussing contingencies. Transparency and authenticity fosters trust.

Think back to how you led your team through COVID – what worked and what didn’t?

We saw leading companies communicate regularly and clearly with employees through channels they actively use. Consider delivering a regular update from leadership, and ensure team members know where to turn with questions.

2. Manage negativity

Negativity in the workplace can hurt productivity, decrease employee engagement, and increase turnover rates — all of which impact business success. Employees may feel anxious or cynical for reasons that go beyond work, but as a leader, you can create an environment that helps manage negativity effectively.

Unaddressed concerns can escalate. Take time during team meetings to build morale and provide clarity. If a specific employee seems particularly concerned, schedule a one-on-one conversation to listen and help find solutions.

3. Wellness builds resilience

Supporting workplace wellness helps employees feel their best — physically, mentally, socially, and financially. When people feel better, they work better too. Work with HR staff to develop and maintain wellness initiatives that promote resilience. Some examples include:

• Conduct regular check-ins with team members
• Encourage informal team conversations to build rapport
• Promote work-life balance to prevent burnout
• Remind employees how to access the Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Recognize individual contributions to reinforce a sense of belonging
• Foster a safe, inclusive workplace where employees can be authentic
• Practice empathy and be an open, available listener

Finally, model the behaviours you encourage. Talk about how you manage stress and maintain balance, so your team sees that self-care is valued. When you take care of your own well-being, you’re better equipped to lead your team through uncertainty with confidence and resilience.

Want more?

• THRC tool: Assess Your Company’s Wellness Efforts
• THRC guide: A Holistic Approach to Your Employees’ Wellbeing

RH Camionnage Canada est à la recherche d’employeurs désireux de créer et d’améliorer des lieux de travail accueillants. Les employeurs intéressés ont la possibilité de travailler en tête-à-tête avec des professionnels des RH et d’essayer les nouveaux modèles, outils et ressources développés par RHCC.

Les problèmes de main-d’œuvre du secteur ne cesseront de s’aggraver dans les années à venir. Les employeurs peuvent contribuer à remédier à cette pénurie en élargissant leur bassin de talents pour y inclure une plus grande diversité d’employés. Avec le vieillissement de la main-d’œuvre, les travailleurs sont plus susceptibles d’avoir des besoins en matière d’adaptation et de présenter des problèmes d’accessibilité supplémentaires.

• Soyez parmi les premiers à découvrir les nouveaux outils de RHCC et à faire part de vos commentaires.
• Vous aurez accès à des professionnels nationaux des RH reconnus pour leur expertise dans ce domaine, qui peuvent aider votre organisation à développer/affiner et faire avancer les politiques, et soutenir leur mise en œuvre.
• Vos commentaires contribueront à l’élaboration d’outils et de ressources de pointe spécialement conçus pour le secteur du camionnage et de la logistique.

Cette occasion est ouverte à tous les employeurs qui opèrent, en tout ou en partie, au Québec. Les entreprises peuvent être des flottes de petite taille, moyennes ou de grande taille, sous réglementation fédérale ou provinciale. Les participants des deux langues officielles sont les bienvenus. Jusqu’à huit heures de soutien individualisé de la part de professionnels des RH.

Les places sont limitées. Contactez-nous pour en savoir plus et présenter votre demande : [email protected]

“The key to building a great culture is to recognize that ordinary people want to do extraordinary things. Your job as a leader is to create an environment that supports this to happen.”

Sean Durfy, Former President and CEO, WestJet

Building a respectful workplace is one of the best things we can do to create a welcoming workplace — one where people feel valued, able to be their true selves, and want to perform.

Valuing respect involves demonstrating it. It is about putting words into action.

So how can we, as leaders, action respect?

According to David Irvine — trusted leadership expert and author — respect must be modelled, especially by those in positions of leadership.

THRC has partnered with David Irvine to deliver a three-part webinar series this fall that is tailored to our sector. The goal of these cost-effective customized sessions is to deliver practical insights and tools that can help us all build better workplaces — and creating a culture of respect is a great place to start.

Irvine tells a story about working with an organization to define their core values. When the process was complete, respect was at the top of the list.

“Now, how are we going to be accountable to ensure that everyone in this organization behaves respectfully?” he asked the leadership team.

At that point all the heads went down and no one made eye contact.

“What about Frank? He’s one of our senior leaders, and we all know he is one of the most disrespectful people in the company,” one executive said.

“What are you going to do about it?” Irvine asked.

“We can’t fire him,” the CEO explained. “As the director of sales, he single-handedly brings in more money than the entire sales team combined.”

“You don’t have to fire him,” Irvine said. “But if you keep him, you need to put a line through the value of respect and replace it with ‘profit.’ Because that is what you show you value. Values are the actions that are supported in an organization.”

After much deliberation, they decided to fire Frank. After that, the entire sales team stepped up and started to create results as they never had before. They finally felt the executive team was actually going to start getting real.

Here are five ways Irvine says you can make respect real on your team:

1. Decide that respect is important enough to make it a priority. Be sure everyone understands what you mean by respect and why it matters in the workplace.
2. Be able to describe what respect means to each person in their roles — with meaningful, practical, behavioural details.
3. Define the expectations of each person regarding respect; explicitly negotiate and agree to behave respectfully to each other.
4. Define a violation process. If anyone knowingly or unknowingly dishonours or violates an agreement, be specific about how it will be dealt with. Help everyone in your organization feel safe to discuss with anyone, at any time, any of the details when they don’t feel respected.
5. Include discussions of personal responsibility so that “disrespect” does not turn into a weapon to prevent the ability to have tough conversations.

Join our growing list of employers for our Leadership webinar series this Fall. This is a unique, three-part webinar series led by David Irvine. You can bring your team together for three one-hour sessions, plus 30 minutes of Q and A, all for one group participation fee.

Making our industry better starts with us all being the best leaders we can be. And, because the event is virtual — there is no participation limit.

When you register before September 30 for all three sessions, you also get access to a bonus session, Psychological Safety: The One Thing That Changes Everything.

Find out more or register here.

Angela Splinter is CEO of Trucking HR Canada, a national, non-profit organization and the trusted source for labour market intelligence and advancing industry-leading HR solutions for our national trucking and logistics workforce. We collaborate, partner, and work with a dynamic national-provincial-territorial network, including industry associations, government, and industry professionals to ensure Canada’s freight transportation network has the skilled workforce required for today and into the future.

We’ve been sharing news recently about the updated National Occupation Standard (NOS) for commercial transport truck operators which was released in the spring. This important work also includes a suite of tools developed to support employers and others with their occupational level training (OLT), commonly referred to as finishing training or onboarding.

The content in the suite of 16 key resources is informed by the NOS — the leading document created by industry for industry. The NOS identifies the competencies that are needed in most workplaces and typically acquired by operators in the first six to 24 months of employment, so the tools support the industry as they train drivers, as well as trainers, coaches, mentors, and assessors.

The resources and tools are designed to bridge the gap between entry-level level training and employment readiness. They help trainers, coaches, mentors, and assessors meet the training needs of their workplace and also help in developing materials to meet the specific needs of the employer, industry, and commodities involved.

The content from the NOS has been divided into two sections: knowledge and practical. One document outlines what a driver needs to know, while the other has what a driver needs to be able to do by the end of an occupational level training program.

The resources also include:

• Guides for designing and reviewing OLT that meet the unique needs of employers in our industry.
• A knowledge exam bank and practical driving assessment in customizable templates for use throughout OLT to assess knowledge and performance.
• Tools to build the capacity of instructors, coaches, and mentors to support driver training.
• Training guides with a standard approach to instructing tractor-trailer inspection, tractor-trailer coupling and uncoupling, tractor-trailer backing, and on-road driving that include tasks required for instructing learners and help for the instructor to identify correct performance and possible errors.
• NOS Supplements with additional occupational competencies needed to successfully operate commercial vehicles on steep inclines or while operating flatbed vehicles.

Developing these tools and making them available is part of Trucking HR Canada’s work to support improved training for all size fleets and drivers on their training journey. A consistent approach will help reduce costs for driver training for all and improve driver recruitment and retention, making our industry more attractive for career seekers across the county.

You can find all the resources as free downloads in English and French here.

Skills and training remain one of THRC’s 5 key strategic goals, supporting our work in ensuring that Canada’s road transportation network has the skilled workforce needed for today and into the future.

This work supports industry in developing highly skilled, productive, and safe drivers.

The work started in 2015 with the development and release of our National Occupational Standard (NOS) for commercial vehicle operators.

Occupational standards serve many practical purposes. Technically, they define the knowledge and skills required and specify what a job incumbent needs to know and do to successfully carry out the functions of a specific job in a typical work environment. They are voluntary and are useful for a host of audiences — including training providers, HR professionals, employers, and governments — as well as others interested in developing training programs, curriculum, skills evaluations, knowledge tests, and more.

Last year, we led a national collaborative effort to update and build on our NOS work – work that has served as the foundation for Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) driver training programs across the country. This work’s primary focus was to improve and support occupational level training in the industry.

Occupational level training takes place after licensing and is usually provided by the employer to enhance a new driver’s skills to meet their company’s needs, road, and safety standards.

The current lack of skill recognition for commercial vehicle operators — truck drivers — means that the industry does not have the same access to training funds that other industries with skilled occupations have. While the lack of funding is one factor, the lack of consistency and consensus with driver training is an even bigger one.

As a means of addressing this, THRC worked with a 31-person national Working Group between January 2023 and April 2024 to look at ways of improving occupational level driver training in Canada. This group — which included provincial and national trucking associations, insurance companies, safety organizations, training schools, employers, and other transportation partners — led the charge in updating the NOS, and then identified the resources and tools to support employers and others involved in the development and delivery of occupational level driver training.

The subsequent development and design of 16 key resources support the industry in ensuring our drivers have the competencies they need to be successful, skilled, and safe.

Additionally, these resources support other key industry goals of:

1. Bridging the gap between entry-level training and employment readiness
2. Providing the foundation for a nationally consistent approach to occupational level training that directly supports increased productivity and labour mobility
3. Increasing skill recognition and attractiveness of the occupation
4. Producing better trained and safer drivers

And, by financially supporting this work, the Government of Canada is doing its part to help the industry move forward. Continued support will depend on how we leverage and use these government investments.

And the industry at large can leverage these resources to raise the bar in driver recruitment and retention. With our most recent labour market information (LMI) forecasting a need that could exceed 40,000 drivers between now and 2030 – this remains a crucial business imperative. Which means that increasing the attractiveness of the occupation should be too.

This suite of free, downloadable tools is available in French and English, and can be accessed through this link.

And I encourage you to read this article by our Chief Program Officer, Craig Faucette as he provides more details on how these resources and tools can be used to support the industry in raising the bar in driver training.