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Commercial trucker training and licensing problematic in Ontario: auditor general
The auditor general found 54 of 216 truck-training colleges had never been inspected and said ministries failed to track outcomes or share enforcement data.
On Tuesday, Ontario Auditor-General Shelley Spence released a report finding the province fails to effectively monitor commercial truck driver training, creating "a risk for all drivers on Ontario's roads."
The number of private career colleges offering truck training surged from 93 in 2019 to 205 in 2024, yet Spence found some institutions "falsified or altered" records or failed to deliver mandatory instruction.
Undercover investigators found two colleges provided significantly less than the required 103.5 hours of training, with one offering only 20 hours; the Ministry had never inspected 54 of 216 registered colleges as of March 2025.
Unregistered schools successfully booked more than 3,200 road tests, as the Ministry failed to share inspection data with the Transport Ministry, preventing officials from identifying schools with suspended or revoked registrations.
Large commercial trucks accounted for 12% of fatal collisions between 2019 and 2023 despite representing only 3% of vehicles, prompting the province to accept all 13 recommendations from the Auditor-General to improve oversight.