Saskatchewan Trucking Association

In a landlocked province like Saskatchewan, transporting goods by truck is critical to ensuring a free-flowing supply chain. In Saskatchewan, 2022 has been a record year for trade, exports, and new capital investments. With this, the future of the Saskatchewan economy looks bright, yet one constant challenge remains for employers – finding qualified professional drivers.

Trucks are essential – whether moving Saskatchewan timber to port or delivering food to the local grocery store – trucks are what make our economy roll. There is value to doing this work, yet today in Canada, the job vacancy rate in truck transportation is higher than that of the general economy and virtually all other sectors of Canada’s economy.

Driver Shortage

Since early 2019, the Saskatchewan Trucking Association (STA) has worked diligently to educate the government of Saskatchewan on the severity of trucking’s labour shortage. As an industry that supports critical infrastructure sectors like energy and utilities, rail and shipping, health, food, and water, the role of truck transportation is vital to the growth of our country.

Recently on June 21, 2022, Statistics Canada published new job vacancy data for the Canadian economy. While the general creation of new jobs is up for the first quarter of 2022, a lack of truck drivers threatens progress (Labour Market Indicators, June 2022 StatsCan). Canada-wide, truck driver job vacancies swelled to 25,560. Of these job vacancies, it’s reported that 71% of these vacancies are positions that employers are ‘constantly recruiting.’

Closer to home, the province of Saskatchewan has recently touted its low unemployment rate; however, in talking with employers in trucking – the same issues persist – they cannot find qualified drivers. This begs the question, where are all the workers? Statistics Canada unemployment data (Labour Market Indicators, June 2022 StatsCan) confirms a decreasing unemployment rate in the province, but the driver shortage challenges continue to persist.

In Saskatchewan, driver turnover (17%) is far more prevalent than the national average (13%); additionally, a higher-than-normal average age of a truck driver and a lack of female representation in the driver seat contributes to a dwindling pool of available labour. Interestingly, if the truck driver workforce mirrored the gender representation of Canada’s overall economy, there would be an additional 129,100 female truck drivers in Canada (Labour Market Indicators, March 2020, TruckingHR Canada). When you combine these factors with a lack of suitably experienced job candidates – employers often look for a minimum of two years of driving experience – the pressure on the industry to fill seats, retain, and attract new workers has become exceedingly difficult.

 Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT)

Today in Saskatchewan, for a person to operate a Class 1 vehicle, that is, power units and semi-trailers, and trucks which have a trailer(s) or vehicle(s) in tow where the gross weight of the towed unit(s) exceeds 4,600 kg, they are required to complete Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) which is a minimum of 121.5 hours of training before taking a road test.
The MELT Program came into effect on March 15, 2019. Prior to MELT being introduced in Saskatchewan, persons seeking a Class 1 commercial license took a written and road test only.

The numbers suggest that before MELT, obtaining a Class 1 license was far easier. In 2017, Saskatchewan saw 2,484 new Class 1 drivers; 2018 saw 2,796, and in the three months leading up to MELT being implemented in Saskatchewan, 2,204 Class 1 licenses were issued. These numbers have significantly dropped in the two years since MELT was established. In 2020, the first full year of MELT implementation, 1,417 Class 1 licenses were issued, and 2021 saw 1,725. In the overall picture for Saskatchewan, from 2020 to 2021, the total active Class 1 license pool decreased by 35 fewer active licenses (61,773).

Although we’ve seen decreases in Class 1 licenses, the purpose of MELT was to increase the standard of training across Canada. MELT has been a positive step because increased training is never a bad thing – and employers have recognized that the skill and knowledge level of drivers graduating from MELT has increased. Nonetheless, two main problems exist:

1. MELT does not make an individual employable and ready to drive professionally. Therefore, employers take on a major risk of hiring an individual without additional training time.

2. The cost of MELT. Today in Saskatchewan, the cost of MELT for a single person can range between $11,000 - $13,500 (for 121.5 hours of training). Many four-year bachelor’s degrees aren’t running that high.

With these challenges, trucking finds itself between a rock and a hard place when looking for the next generation of professional drivers.

 Funding

When we have conversations about the driver shortage, the short-term solution that always comes up is funding. Consequently, MELT does not meet the requirements for Canada Student Loans and many other funding avenues available to young professionals looking to start on their career paths. In Saskatchewan, individuals unable to pay out of pocket can look to find an employer who is willing to hire them. Once a job offer has been made, the employer can apply for the Canada Saskatchewan Jobs Grant, where employers contribute 1/3 of the cost and the program covers 2/3 of the cost – for a maximum of $10,000. As MELT costs have soared to as high as $13,500, employers are taking on significant costs to hire and train drivers who may not be cut out for this profession.

In 2020/2021, 41% of Canada Saskatchewan Jobs Grant dollars went specifically to funding MELT. In 2021/2022, 30% of the funding dollars available in Saskatchewan went to MELT training. These numbers suggest demand for individuals seeking dollars to obtain a Class 1 driver’s license. Nonetheless, unlike most careers young Canadians are looking to find, individuals must find creative ways to cover the cost of their MELT training without government support. Such a lack of historical funding should be alarming for those who make their career in trucking.

 Moving Fortunes Ahead

Driver shortage or not, trucking doesn’t stop. I have only begun to scratch the surface of the issues plaguing our industry’s growth. Training and funding seem to be the most common challenges when we discuss labour. Another idea that industry experts have put forth is moving trucking into the apprenticeship trade space. Ultimately, that will take a national effort and incredible cooperation between industry and government. Thus, when we discuss short-term solutions to solving our greatest challenge, we need the government to start supporting the industry the way we support Canada’s economy.