Ontario Auditor General Shelley Spence’s scathing report on commercial truck driver licensing confirms what has been going on for a while.
Everything crooked you can imagine, and more, is taking place.
Focusing on passing the road test rather than broader skills, check.
Training on DriveTest’s road test routes, check.
Booking tests at “easier” test centres, check.
Signing off on fewer than mandated training hours, check.
Not maintaining student-to-trainer ratios, check.
I’ve heard of mandatory entry-level training (MELT) certificates being signed off for a fee. Also, a student who failed a road test at one school was training others on pre-trip inspections at another school in lieu of taking a road test with their truck. You can’t make this stuff up.
The auditor general found that, as of March 2025, 25% of all Ontario private career colleges offering MELT — 54 of the 216 — were never inspected by the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security (MCURES).
One in four driving schools not inspected
That’s one in four schools.
Multiply that by the number of students trained by them who have passed a road test, maybe the “easy” one, and are now driving beside you and your loved ones on the roadway.
I’m not painting all schools with the same brush, because there are some really good training institutions. And those mostly get inspected and audited.
Would you be comfortable sitting in an aircraft whose pilot was trained by a flying school that was never inspected? What about the train operator hauling hundreds of freight cars rolling into your town? Or the captain and officers helming the cruise ship you are vacationing on?
Oversight by two ministries
Ontario has a strange officialdom when it comes to truck driving schools. They are private career colleges under MCURES, but oversight is shared with the Ministry of Transportation (MTO).
The troubling part is that MCURES inspectors are checking culinary and hairdressing schools, along with truck driver training schools. They may or may not possess the expertise and understanding required.
Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the Ministry of Transportation and MCURES have been conducting targeted enforcement against schools, and charges have been laid. He did not provide details.
The industry and public are very interested in the details.
Details are lacking
As part of my job, I seek those details in the questions I send to the transportation ministry. I usually get a statement, and no response to the questions asked.
MCURES Minister Nolan Quinn’s office provided details. The province has inspected 14 additional career colleges offering Class A truck driver training since the drafting of the auditor general’s report.
The government is working with the superintendent of career colleges to ensure all remaining career colleges offering Class A truck driver training programs are visited by the end of June.
I applaud the auditor general for shining an official light on the embarrassing mess. This report lands squarely in the public spotlight, and it’s creating waves, as it should.
“Not my truck, not my industry,” is perhaps what goes through the public’s mind. For many, trucks are a nuisance, blocking lanes on a highway or slowing traffic on smaller roads. When there is a crash involving a transport truck, there is a collective shaking of heads until the next thing comes along in the news cycle.
Recipe for disaster
Amid all this activity, let’s focus on the driving school students. It is in their interest to get the best training possible. But consider these factors as well. For many, the mindset is to get the licence first and learn on the job later.
Driving school owners (the good ones) have told me on numerous occasions the first question they get asked from prospective students is, “How much?” The second question is, “How long?”
The cheapest option with the shortest training timeframe is a recipe for disaster.
Rot in the industry
That is what is driving this rot in the industry. And there are many willing to cater to this appetite to get a commercial driver’s licence.
Supply and demand without enforcement and penalties is what led us to this situation. Actions speak louder than words, and time will tell if things get cleaned up.
Until then, be afraid, be very afraid of the “easy” bunch on the road.
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