Ontario’s truck driver training system is broken and is in urgent need of reform, industry stakeholders said during a panel at the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario (TTSAO)’s annual conference in Brampton, Ont. They called for tougher oversight, expanded training requirements, and said it’s time to “get loud” about other problems like funding shortfalls and lack of proper mentorship programs.
Panelists pushed for minimum tuition standards, and standardized testing, while urging the province to make trucking programs eligible for Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) funding and to support structured post-licensing mentorship.
At the heart of the discussion was TTSAO’s newly released white paper, which proposes a 200-hour training minimum.
“We need to stand up and represent all our schools,” said Jeff McKay, owner of Transport Driver Training during the panel discussion. “People are dying every day for no reason. We gotta get louder.”
Graduated licensing
Geoff Wood, Ontario Trucking Association (OTA)’s senior vice-president of policy, said carriers need new drivers to arrive with more practical experience, and a structured onboarding or mentoring system has to follow initial licensing.
“Currently, MELT is the beginning and the end,” Wood said. “But in our mind, MELT (mandatory entry-level training) is now the beginning … the final piece of the puzzle [would be] when you’re fully licensed, it’s based on a configuration…If we look back at some high-profile instances or collisions, we probably had drivers that were in situations or in vehicles that they weren’t really prepared for.”
OTA is advocating for a graduated licensing model that would require new drivers to earn endorsements based on the type of equipment they will operate. Wood summed up the approach as a “driver certification program on steroids with extreme oversight.”
Carriers with strong training systems in place could deliver those endorsements through formalized onboarding and mentoring programs — a practice that, according to Wood, many OTA-member fleets already follow, but without standardization or funding.
To make the system work, institutionalized funding would be required so compliant carriers can recoup the cost of mentorship. “Right now, the carriers are footing the bill for that. Whatever it is, 10 or 20 grand [per student] over a month, two months, three months.” Speaking of the funding, he says only compliant, tax-paying carriers would be able to apply – though it would come with strings attached. “It’s not just a free-for-all,” he said.
Training schools need support, too
Gus Rahim, president of Ontario Truck Driving School, who was in the audience, commented, warning that without support at both ends of the training pipeline — students and carriers — the system risks failure. He recalled a similar initiative from years ago, Earning Your Wheels, that he says faltered due to lack of funding.
Today, the conditions haven’t changed much. The real problem, in his view, isn’t MELT itself — it’s how some schools are delivering it. Rahim said low-cost programs are cutting corners and compromising safety, while reputable schools are being undercut by what the TTSAO calls “bad actors” offering MELT for as little as $3,500.
“Ninety per cent of the cash-paying customers don’t come to us because we cannot afford to sell a course at $3,500. For $3,500 I can’t even put fuel in our trucks,” Rahim said. “It costs us $150 per hour to train one-on-one. Do the math. There’s no way you can do it for $3,500.”
He added that some students come to his school after being offered test answers elsewhere. “Okay, what are you going to school for? ‘Oh, I don’t want to study,’” one student told him. “Guess what — he ended up coming to us because he was being funded. And he made the right choice. He came and thanked me at the end.”
Ken Adams, chairman of the TTSAO and president of Crossroads Truck and Career Academy echoed that message. “We want to increase hours, but that’s moot unless we clean up the system,” he said, adding that even good schools are “either being dragged down to compete or going out of business.”
Meanwhile, Lesley de Repentigny, vice-chairwoman of TTSAO and CEO of DriveWise, called for the introduction of a minimum tuition baseline, echoing Adams’ argument about current price race to the bottom.
Adams also pointed out that truck driver training’s exclusion from OSAP – a financial aid program that offers grants and loans to help Ontario students pay for their post-secondary education – continues to drive prospective students toward lower-quality schools. “My school is now approved for OSAP — not for trucking, for the other side of it. However, it’s now giving me my foot in the door, because I am going to push for OSAP to be recognized for the training schools,” he promised in hopes that OSAP could help students avoid cut-rate options and choose reputable programs.
McKay of Transport Driver Training stressed that students often choose programs based on cost alone, without understanding what’s being left out, highlighting the importance of educating students when they call about training programs.
McKay added that schools need to be patient and thorough when responding to inquiries. “It’s almost like a sales pitch, but you gotta be patient with these youngsters calling. Talk to them, ask them what they’re looking for. Are you looking for the A? Are you looking for the B? If you don’t know, come into my school. I’ll sit down and explain everything,” he said.
Improved MELT
TTSAO’s white paper was also part of the discussion during the panel.
The proposal calls for a 200-hour training minimum, including 145 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction with mandatory segments for highway, night, and weighted trailer driving. An additional 35 hours would be dedicated to yard training, covering pre-trip inspections, coupling and uncoupling, backing maneuvers, and load securement.
The whitepaper also recommends enhanced instructor qualifications, requiring a minimum of five years of verifiable AZ driving experience, clean records, and instructor certification. Retired drivers would be allowed to return to the industry as instructors within one year of leaving the road.
TTSAO is also advocating for 60 hours of instructor-led focused on hours of service, trip planning, and driver rights—along with an 80% pass threshold for all theory tests, with signed instructor-student accountability.
On the oversight side, the association wants testing requirements at DriveTest centres to be brought in line with what students are trained on—including standardized trailers between 48 and 53 feet with proper weight. TTSAO also advocates for harmonization across provincial and national guidelines for consistency and fairness. It also proposes joint audits by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU) and the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) inspectors and public disclosure of organizations’ pass rates to improve accountability and help students make more informed choices.
Oversight and enforcement
As the discussion turned toward implementation, speakers said that meaningful reform wouldn’t happen without strong enforcement.
Adams and others criticized the lack of sector-specific oversight and called for inspections to be returned to MTO rather than remaining under the MCU.
“When the inspectors don’t know our field, how can they investigate it?” Adams said in an earlier discussion during the conference, recalling an inspection at his school. “He was leaving my place to go investigate a hair salon the next day. And the day prior to that, he was auditing a flight school. How in the world can this guy be so versed in all these fields?”
He said TTSAO will keep fighting for its vision for revamped driver training, stronger enforcement and support from the government. As Adams announced that he’ll stay on as TTSAO chairman for the next two years, he promised, “Changes are going to happen in the next two years—mark my words.”
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