Industry professionals say fraud seems to be everywhere in trucking — it is widely seen as systemic, normalized, and insufficiently enforced, according to respondent’s to Trucknews.com’s latest Pulse Reader Survey.
About 76% said they are extremely concerned about fraudulent practices in the industry, while another 16% said they are moderately concerned. Just 2% indicated no concerns at all.
When asked whether they have personally experienced or directly witnessed fraud, more than half (52%) said they’ve experienced it multiple times, while another 14% said they had experienced it once.
One reader wrote, “Fraud in the industry today is rampant and the bodies responsible for safety and anti-fraud have been asleep at the wheel for many years. Enforcement, enforcement, enforcement!”
Another one said, “Our whole industry is full of fraud, most of it right under everyone’s nose.”
Eighty-four percent of respondents highlighted fraudulent or improperly obtained licences as the biggest problem facing the industry right now. Fraudulent safety inspections and fake safety decals followed closely at 77%.
It is not that surprising that other common issues included employee misclassification, also known as Driver Inc., followed by questionable practices at some of the testing facilities, cargo theft and more.
Employee misclassification was one of the prevailing topics of the readers’ comments. One, for example, shared that it is very difficult for them to hire company drivers in the GTA, “because nine out of 10 applicants ask to be paid as ‘Driver Inc.’”
Another respondent echoed, “More than 50% of the driver applicants that come into our operation request to be paid as incorporated drivers. These drivers aspire to circumvent the income tax system in Canada and therefore cheat the system that depends on everyone’s fair and equitable contribution.”
“Driver Inc. is undercutting rates. Happens daily. Becoming difficult as a carrier to watch the inactivity from the federal government,” one of the respondents complained.
Other than Driver Inc., readers pointed out various fraud and theft having direct financial impacts on their businesses, including cargo theft, equipment theft, and organized scams.
Others described large-scale schemes they believe involve organized crime. “Organized crime took us for close to $100,000,” one respondent wrote, adding that the group had targeted multiple shippers while falsely claiming to work on behalf of a major energy company. They called for stronger carrier vetting, licensing and insurance requirements for brokers, and a national registry to flag fraudulent operators.