Ottawa put $43 million toward training and onboarding new truck drivers

In February 2023, federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced $43 million to train and onboard up to 2,600 new trucking workers through Trucking HR Canada's Career ExpressWay program. He made the announcement at the fleet One for Freight.

How the money works

• Up to $20,000 per new truck driver. Up to half could go to entry-level training, and a similar amount to onboarding, mentoring and finishing programs.
• Training and wage subsidies covering up to 1,400 new drivers and 1,200 workers in other in-demand trucking jobs.
• A further $3 million for Trucking HR Canada to update the national occupational standard for entry-level and occupational-level drivers, and to refresh labour market data using census information.

To qualify, fleets had to show the training met federal mandatory entry-level training (MELT) standards, and had to submit pay stubs and proof of source deductions. The source deduction requirement would rule out Driver Inc. fleets that misclassify employees as contractors.

The shortage behind it

Alghabra said the industry had about 27,000 driver vacancies. He said 32% of truck drivers were 55 or older, compared with 22% of the overall workforce, and that vacancies could top 55,000 by the end of 2023 if nothing changed.

One for Freight CEO David Carruth said the real cost of getting a driver job-ready was closer to $25,000, but the funding would help. Arjit Singh, a former dock supervisor at the fleet, was among the first trainees in the program.