Hiring truck drivers in Canada

Use the licence word drivers search for

Each province names its licence classes its own way, and drivers search with their own word. A title in the wrong word misses the search.

Most provinces now require entry-level training before a new tractor-trailer licence: Ontario, Quebec (since December 2025), British Columbia, Alberta (its Class 1 Learning Pathway), Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Northwest Territories. A driver who just finished it has the licence but little experience, so say in the post whether you hire new drivers, run a finishing program, or need a set number of years for your insurer.

The job posting rules

• Ontario, 25 or more employees

  Since 1 January 2026, a publicly advertised job posting must give the expected pay or a pay range no wider than $50,000 a year, say whether it is for an existing vacancy, and say whether artificial intelligence is used to screen, assess or select applicants. It may not require Canadian experience. Applicants you interviewed must be told, within 45 days of their last interview, whether a hiring decision was made. Keep postings and interview records for 3 years. The 25 employees are counted on the day the job is posted.

• British Columbia

  Since 1 November 2023, every provincially regulated employer must include the expected pay or a pay range in publicly advertised job postings, and may not ask applicants what they were paid before.

• Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick

  Both require the expected pay or a pay range in public job postings. New Brunswick's Pay Transparency Act of June 2026 covers internal postings too.

• Federally regulated carriers

  A for-hire carrier that runs across provincial or national borders as a continuous, regular part of its business is usually a federal undertaking, under the Canada Labour Code, and the provincial posting rules above do not apply to it. The Canada Labour Code has no pay-range rule for postings. A manufacturer or retailer delivering its own goods usually stays under provincial law. Most carriers post the pay anyway, because drivers compare pay before anything else.

TruckerPro Jobs asks for the pay range, the existing-vacancy answer and the AI-screening answer on every post, whichever province you hire in, and refuses "Canadian experience" as a requirement.

Job Bank and the LMIA

Job Bank, at jobbank.gc.ca, is the Government of Canada job board. Posting is free once your business is registered with its CRA payroll account number, and many carriers post Class 1 and AZ jobs there.

If you may hire through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) has its own advertising rules. Truck drivers are National Occupational Classification (NOC) 73300. As of November 2026:

• High-wage positions

  Advertise on Job Bank and in at least two other ways suited to the job, one of them national, for at least 4 weeks in a row within the 3 months before you apply. One ad stays up until you get a decision.

• Low-wage positions

  Job Bank plus at least two other methods, each aimed at a different under-represented group, for at least 8 weeks in a row within the 3 months before you apply.

• Where low-wage LMIAs are refused

  Low-wage applications are not processed in census metropolitan areas with unemployment of 6% or more, a list that ESDC updates each quarter. For applications from 9 October 2026 to 7 January 2027 it includes Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa-Gatineau, Hamilton, London, Regina and Saskatoon. Truck drivers are not exempt.

These rules change often. Read the current pages on canada.ca, listed under Sources, before you start the clock.

Checks before a new driver's first trip

• Licence and abstract

  See the licence itself, check the class, the air brake endorsement and the expiry, and get the driver's abstract (driving record) from the province, with the driver's consent.

• Employment history

  Call the last employers. Ask about the dates, the equipment, accidents and whether they would hire the driver again.

• Driver file

  Provinces audit carriers against the National Safety Code. Keep each driver's licence, abstracts, training and hours-of-service records together from day one. Our sister site truckerspro.net explains Canadian driver files and US DQ files.

• Cross-border runs

  The driver needs a passport or a FAST card for the border. Once they drive in the United States they fall under the FMCSA drug and alcohol testing rules and the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, so the US pre-employment test and Clearinghouse query apply before their first US trip. The CDL hiring guide lists them.

Where to post in Canada

Most carriers combine Indeed Canada or another general board, Job Bank, a trucking board and referrals from their own drivers. Community groups help too, including Punjabi-language trucking groups. Title the post with the licence word, give the pay range and the home time, and call applicants back the same day. The where-to-post guide compares the channels.

Drivers looking for work in Canada find TruckerPro Jobs posts on pages such as AZ driver jobs, Class 1 driver jobs and cross-border truck driver jobs.