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Ontario’s truck driver testing system compromised by bribes and corruption

A recent analysis published by CBC News revealed that Ontario’s system for testing truck drivers has been compromised by forged documents, bribes, and rigged testing. What’s more, an investigation using hidden cameras and carried out by CBC’s Marketplace showed that the mandatory entry-level training (MELT) prospective truckers receive for the test has been compromised as well.

Currently, Ontario’s DriveTest centres are run by a company called Serco, which manages operations and logistics for numerous organizations, including air traffic control for the Canadian Armed Forces and employment services for the federal government.

A leaked internal memo dated November 2023 from Serco was shared with Marketplace following its investigation of the province’s driving schools, and addressed to all driving examiners in Ontario. According to the memo, “a number of employees have either resigned or been terminated this past year due to investigations that we have completed involving allegations of inappropriate and illegal behaviour.” The memo also states that the behaviour ranged from “accepting bribes for issuing road test passes, to manipulation of automatic versus manual transmission certificates, to false driver experience being added to driver records.”

The memo was signed by Gary Cook, Serco’s vice-president of operations, and shared by a DriveTest examiner responsible for testing individuals pursuing their commercial trucking licence. “[I’m] basically putting my job on the line to say something,” the examiner said in her interview with Marketplace. “These people [who] took bribes gave licences for a murder weapon … in any accident of a transport [truck] versus a car, more than likely the person in that car is not going to walk away,” she added. “In our company, there are times where we feel that someone shouldn’t be passing and we have to pass them … Our hands are tied.”

Serco declined an interview with CBC News; however, the company spokesperson Alan Hill said in an email statement that “Serco operates under the strict testing standards set by the Ministry of Transportation. Our aim is to provide a full and fair assessment of each driver’s skills, while ensuring that the road test reflects the applicant’s overall competency.” In addition, Hill stated that Serco takes allegations seriously, and has immediately started an investigation resulting in the termination of staff involved in any fraudulent or illegal behaviour.

In 2019, Ontario’s auditor general urged the Ministry of Transportation to review the MELT program and enhance its enforcement for commercial vehicles. Subsequently, in 2022, Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation responded that MELT is “not an effective program” and writing there had been “little evidence of road safety benefit resulting from the July 2017 MELT program.”

According to the CBC investigation findings, few resources are currently allocated to investigating an increasing number of truck training schools, which are mainly regulated by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. The Ministry declined to speak directly with CBC, but sent a statement stating that it had “taken action on bad actors to ensure that all training is done safely and to standard.”

CBC News Story