Blacklock’s- Creeping Black Market
The underground economy now comprises a third of the Canadian trucking industry, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday.
Wood said a 2022 Department of Employment spot check on scofflaws in Ontario alone “found gross non-compliance with more than 60 percent of employers” in contravention of labour codes.
Audits by the Canada Revenue Agency also identified widespread tax evasion, said Wood.
Yes, taxes are punitive, and the trucking industry is over-regulated, but some of the issues are cultural. Driving was an easy job for “New Canadians” to get into, with lower barriers to entry than other businesses. There are a lot of ways to cheat the system in trucking that can’t be done in a brick and mortar store. Running recaps on steer tires, ignoring hours of service, using dyed fuel, even cloning truck license plates and insurance documentation so 2 trucks can work for the administrative expense of one, there’s a million scams. But I’ve only see one type of people running them. Ultimately, rules only affect people that agree to abide by them, and I know a bunch of honest operators that exited the industry when they could no longer compete with guys that were blatantly cheating.
Instead of exiting the industry they should have cheated too. In other words, they should have said f+ck the rules and f+ck the regulations.
Except we have morals and ethics and integrity….
yeah no shit, thanks to the CTA and STA’s gross cooperation with government.
What did the cuckolds expect would happen ?
“Creeping Black Market” for the win!
Here, here. I’m a firm believer in f+ck the authorities.
Isn’t the trucking industry pretty much overrun with South Asians? Those cats wrote the book on gaming the system…so I’m not too surprised by this news.
I call BS. Underground economy typically involves only goods and services sold directly to consumers who can’t write off expenses. Trucking is probably providing services to other businesses 99% of the time. What is income to one is a deductible expense to another. A business that pays cash for trucking is going to have a serious talk with Canada Revenue Agency convincing them that cash for trucking never went into his own pocket.
The main business in the underground economy is home renovations/home repairs where someone gives an obviously good price for cash. It isn’t nickles and dimes. The amount of saving makes a difference. In a gas station I was behind the owner in line to pay for a fill. He was worth maybe $10 million. I asked him why he paid for gas in his own gas station. He said that if he starts taking stuff without paying for it, others may get the same idea. He may very well have written off the gas as a business expense but he wanted everything accounted for.
Every heavily regulated/tazed industry eventually spawns a black market sector. As the burden grows, eventually every operator fades to black.
… and it’s got nothing to do with seizing truckers bank accounts. How do you drive (sorry) an industry to become cash and carry? Have an Authoritarian government seize everyone’s bank account. Boom!! The cash goes straight into the mattress.