Safe Rates Campaign 2025

This year’s International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Safe Rates Global Action Week runs from June 19 to 25, 2025. Timed to coincide with the European Transport Workers’ Federation’s Day of Action Against Driver Fatigue on June 21, the week highlights the strong link between unequal pay, unfair competition, and driver fatigue across Europe.

Join the ITF’s WhatsApp group to stay up-to-date on global Safe Rates initiatives.

Safe Rates Campaign in Canada

Unifor has joined more than 50 trade unions representing road transport drivers around the world calling for “Safe Rates” systems, which will improve workers' rights and make roads safer.

Unifor identifies the current issues that reduce pay and undermine safety:

DHL route shortening for owner-operators significantly reduces their pay.
Unifor’s road transportation members face cost of living/inflation higher than previously negotiated agreements and are likely to seek a cost-of-living adjustment in addition to the wage rates adjustment they need in the face of their own increased costs of ownership of their vehicle.
School Bus sector is facing driver supply shortages.
Cash In Transit companies are reducing workers per vehicle.
Intermodal trucking contracting-out to lower waged companies.
Lack of equitable access to bathroom facilities for drivers and operators.
Increased insurance costs across the industry.
Digital platform companies (or tech companies) misclassifying workers to avoid regulation.

Evidence shows that pay increases as little as 10% can reduce accidents by 30%.

Unifor is fighting these business models in road transport that have become unsustainable and lead to labour abuses.

Unifor with the ITF are fighting for the Canadian road transport industry and federal government to:

Adopt Safe Rates legislation.
Advocate for labour protections and unions to strengthen supply chain security and resilience. Wage floors and sectoral bargaining—like those in B.C.'s port trucking sector—help prevent wage suppression and casualization that primarily benefit U.S. corporate profits.
Free and fair collective bargaining to help support working conditions and wages needed attract high skilled labour to these sectors and keep that money in Canada.
Establish a fair price for transport.
Transparency in rate setting and working conditions.
Strong enforcement through collective agreements and regulatory bodies.
Expanded trade union rights for all in transport.
Ratify and implement International Labour Organization guidelines on the promotion of decent work and road safety.

Global Safe Rates Campaign

#SafeRatesSaveLives

The campaign, launched by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and its member unions, including Unifor, points to evidence that road transport drivers' working conditions force them into dangerous on-road behaviours.

What are Safe Rates?
Guaranteeing Safe Rates mean drivers are paid fairly for all the time they work, allowing them to make enough money to drive safely and support their families. If drivers own their own vehicles, Safe Rates are calculated to ensure that they can cover the cost of purchasing, maintaining, and operating them. Safe Rates can be guaranteed through multistakeholder agreements, or legal regulatory systems which:

Set standards for pay and conditions that are fair and equal for all drivers
Hold all industry stakeholders accountable, including the companies at the top road transport supply chains and platform companies
Include strong provisions on monitoring and enforcement
Involve unions in the process of setting, monitoring, and enforcing standards.

Internationally recognized
Adopted by union, government, and employer representatives in 2019 at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Guidelines on the Promotion of Decent Work and Road Safety in the Transport Sector (ILO Road Transport Guidelines) recognise the link between good jobs and safety, and call on ILO member states to implement, and all road transport industry stakeholders to comply with Safe Rates systems and principles.

"The global road transport industry is in crisis. Drivers are being pushed to the brink, forced to endanger their own lives and the lives of others due to relentless cost-cutting and unsafe working conditions,” said ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton.

"The ITF”s global action week for Safe Rates is a clarion call to end the carnage on our roads. For too long, transport workers have been pushed to the brink, forced to compromise safety for survival. Australia's new Safe Rates legislation proves that this deadly cycle can be broken. It proves that governments, workers, and industry can collaborate to create a system where safety and fairness are paramount."

“We demand that governments worldwide, including the Canadian Government, follow suit and use this groundbreaking legislation as a blueprint for a future where lives are valued above profit margins," Cotton added.

"This action week is our moment to unite and demand change. The time for empty promises is over. It's time for Safe Rates."

Read the ITF’s Safe Rates Global Statement of Demands – Participating Unions

Read ITF’s Global Vision for Safe Rates, Safe Roads, and Sustainable Road Transport.