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TFI’s Bedard calls Driver Inc the ‘cancer’ of the Canadian freight market

CEO of Canada’s largest transportation and logistics company pushes for crackdown as carriers with dubious labor practices place unprecedented pressure on truckload business

Bedard to focus hard on T-Force Freight (Photo: TFI International)

TFI International (TSX:TFI) CEO Alain Bedard called on Canadian authorities to “wake up and smell the coffee” about Driver Inc carriers who have become a “cancer” in the freight market by undercutting rates through intentionally misclassifying employee drivers as contractors.

“This is majorly unfair competition for us,” Bedard said on October 25 while discussing TFI’s third-quarter results

The practice allows carriers to avoid tax deductions and other withholdings. Calls have intensified in recent months with pressure from the Canadian Trucking Alliance and major carriers. The comments from Bedard are significant as the CEO of Canada’s largest transportation and logistics firm – and one of the few that are publicly traded.

Bedard singled out Driver Inc multiple times during the call, also attempted to quantify how Driver Inc could hurt the performance of TFI’s Canadian truckload business in the coming quarters.


TFI’s Canadian truckload units produced a stunning operating ratio of 83% during the third quarter. Absent a solution from authorities, Bedard said the operating ratio could climb as high as 88 percent.

“We have pressure now as we’ve never seen before from these Driver Inc guys,” Bedard said.

He said shippers were using Driver Inc carriers because of artificially low rates. “Our answer is, this is completely unfair competition. But if you want to use these guys go for it, but maybe it won’t last” Bedard said.

The Driver Inc carriers are adding excess capacity to a soft freight market. Bedard blamed the state of the market on businesses staying on the sidelines as they wait for clarity on trade, including the U.S.-China trade war and NAFTA’s successor, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.


He noted that the market appears to be improving in the U.S. and Canada. But he warned that the excess capacity from Driver Inc would likely slow down the Canadian recovery.

15 Comments

  1. Noble1

    Quote:
    “Examining Corporate Priorities: The Impact of Stock Buybacks on Workers, Communities and Investors
    Posted by Lenore Palladino (Roosevelt Institute), on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 ”

    “Lenore Palladino is a Senior Economist and Policy Counsel at the Roosevelt Institute. This post is based on her recent testimony before the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Services. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes Short-Termism and Capital Flows by Jesse Fried and Charles C. Y. Wang and Share Repurchases, Equity Issuances, and the Optimal Design of Executive Pay, by Jesse Fried . ”

    Quote:
    Feb 28, 2017, 01:40pm
    The Ugly Truth Behind Stock Buybacks ”

    Quote:
    “Stock Buybacks are Deadly. It’s Time to End Them.”
    Research & Commentary
    June 26, 2019
    by Luisa Galvao Porter McConnell

    Quote:
    “7 Reasons Stock Buybacks Should Be Illegal ”
    History tells us that investors would survive without them
    By Will Ashworth, InvestorPlace Contributor Jun 6, 2019, 9:01 am EDT

    Get googling !

    In my humble opinion ………….
    ..

  2. Larry Damchuk

    If TFI paid a decent wage to drivers they wouldn’t have any issues with DriverInc taking employees. The so called driver shortage us in actuality a driver wage shortage. Mega carriers are so cheap with their pay, they can’t get anyone to haul for them. They in turn hire fly by night contractors with unsafe unskilled drivers to haul their freight…..carriers using the same DriversInc drivers he’s crying into his Chateau Lafite over.

    1. Unknown Employee

      I think the complaint here is in regards to rates, which have more to do with client preferences than employee wages. TFI can’t pay more if their rates are being undercut. You bring up another good point though, which is how Driver Inc. companies can hire just about anyone to drive for them without facing the same safety compliance policies as larger corporations. Larger corporations have to budget for professional staff to uphold these policies and practices. Many drivers try desperately to switch over to a larger company that will take care of them but can’t because their driver’s abstract has been littered with violations at the hands of their Drivers Inc employer. Again, unfair advantage. I also question how much of Driver Inc. profits are staying in the Canadian economy.

      1. Noble1

        Quote:
        “TFI can’t pay more if their rates are being undercut.”

        BULLSH*T ,cough , pardon my French . WRONG !

        Go look at what TFI International has been doing recently in regards to share buybacks since October 15 2019 ! They bought back 295,000 shares within 16 days . They spent the equivalent of approximately $12,239,776.90 to buyback shares on the open market rather than use those capital corporate “earnings” to increase truck driver wages while they are complaining about driver inc being a cancer because driver inc offers a higher “wage” which competes with them !!! Look at both sides of the coin rather than only the TFI “version” TFI is ranting about .

        Quote:
        ” The case for banning stock buybacks ”
        By Rita McGrath for CNN Business Perspectives
        Updated 12:50 PM ET, Tue February 26, 2019

        GOOGLE IT !

        Quote:
        “Money that flows out of organizations to shareholders is money that could have gone toward worker pay. One recent analysis found that the top five companies in the restaurant industry spent so much on buybacks from 2015 to 2017 that they could have afforded pay increases by an average of 25% for ordinary workers without changing anything else about their operations. Starbucks, for instance, could have given every one of its workers a $7,000 raise if it reallocated funds from buybacks to compensation. ”

        Quote:

        “But we should care more. The bulk of executive pay is now tied to a company’s stock price, creating an incentive to make that price as high as possible. Prior to a 1982 SEC rule change, buybacks were illegal, as they were seen as a form of stock price manipulation. You don’t have to be a genius to realize that if the bulk of executive compensation is tied to a company’s stock price and buybacks make that price go up, that there will be powerful incentives for executives to put money into buybacks. ”

        Quote:
        “Stock Buybacks Were Once Illegal. Why Are They Legal Now?”

        Quote:
        “If This Isn’t Stock Manipulation, I Don’t Know What Is”

        Get googling !!!

        In my humble opinion ,

        1. Noble1

          Quote:
          “Examining Corporate Priorities: The Impact of Stock Buybacks on Workers, Communities and Investors
          Posted by Lenore Palladino (Roosevelt Institute), on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 ”

          “Lenore Palladino is a Senior Economist and Policy Counsel at the Roosevelt Institute. This post is based on her recent testimony before the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Services. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes Short-Termism and Capital Flows by Jesse Fried and Charles C. Y. Wang and Share Repurchases, Equity Issuances, and the Optimal Design of Executive Pay, by Jesse Fried . ”

          Quote:
          Feb 28, 2017, 01:40pm
          The Ugly Truth Behind Stock Buybacks ”

          Quote:
          “Stock Buybacks are Deadly. It’s Time to End Them.”
          Research & Commentary
          June 26, 2019
          by Luisa Galvao Porter McConnell

          Quote:
          “7 Reasons Stock Buybacks Should Be Illegal ”
          History tells us that investors would survive without them
          By Will Ashworth, InvestorPlace Contributor Jun 6, 2019, 9:01 am EDT

          Get googling !

          You’re welcome !

          In my humble opinion ………….

Comments are closed.

Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak is a Toronto-based journalist and producer who covers cybersecurity and cross-border trucking and logistics for FreightWaves. He spent seven years reporting stories in the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a reporter, producer and editor based in Kosovo. He previously worked at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News. He graduated from UC Berkeley, where he studied the history of American policing. Contact Nate at [email protected].