Hire a class 1 truck driver in Greater Montreal
The Class 1 pool is closed off by the licence: nobody joins it without completing the training that is now mandatory and passing the three SAAQ exams. This page gives you a job description to copy, eight questions that separate an experienced driver from someone who merely holds the licence, and what actually slows the search down.
Job description to copy
Replace what is in brackets, then post it as is.
Class 1 truck driver
Location: [city], Greater Montreal · Schedule: [day / evening / night], [number] h per week
Pay: [to be set] (benchmark: median $25.20/h in Quebec, $23.68/h in Montreal (Job Bank))
Responsibilities
- Drive a road tractor with semi-trailer on the regional, long-haul or cross-border runs assigned by dispatch.
- Run the pre-trip inspection before every departure, and again after 24 hours or whenever the driver changes.
- Couple, uncouple and back into customer loading docks.
- Check load securement and weight distribution per axle before leaving the site.
- Keep driving and rest hours current in the electronic logging device.
- Hand in complete bills of lading, delivery slips and customs documents.
- Report mechanical defects to the carrier within the time limits set by regulation.
- Stay in contact with dispatch on the road and flag delays as soon as they are known.
- Meet the appointment times set at customer docks, on pickup as much as on delivery.
- Keep the tractor and trailer in condition and report preventive maintenance needs to the shop.
Requirements
- A valid SAAQ Class 1 driver’s licence.
- A driving record under 4 demerit points, with no suspension or revocation in the past 2 years.
- The F endorsement for vehicles fitted with air brakes.
- A medical and vision report that meets SAAQ health standards.
- The ability to run a pre-trip inspection and to operate an electronic logging device.
- Confirmed availability for this role’s type of run: regional with a nightly return home, or long haul with nights out.
- Comfort with transport paperwork: bills of lading, delivery slips, driving and rest hour records.
Assets
- A transportation of dangerous goods certificate still within its validity.
- A FAST card from the Canada Border Services Agency for runs into the United States. The Commercial Driver Registration Program has ended: cards already issued run to their expiry date, but nobody enrols any more.
- Experience with tankers, flatbeds or oversized loads.
- The DEP Transport par camion rather than the shorter training program.
- Working English for customs and for customers outside Quebec.
- Familiarity with temperature-controlled freight or refrigerated warehouse work.
What we offer
[benefits, insurance, shift premiums, training]
Class 1 truck driver pay benchmark
| Region | Median | Offered in postings |
|---|---|---|
| All of Quebec | $25.20/h | — |
| Montérégie | $25/h | $29.25 (236) |
| Montréal | $23.68/h | $28 (174) |
| Laval | $25/h | $30 (58) |
| Lanaudière | $27/h | $26.72 (64) |
| Laurentides | $27/h | $28.95 (105) |
Median published by Job Bank (NOC 73300) and median offered in job postings (6 months, February to August 2026); in brackets, the number of hourly postings.
Eight interview questions
- Walk me through your pre-trip inspection, in the order you do it. What would make you refuse to leave?
- How do you tell a minor defect from a major one, and what do you do in each case?
- How many hours can you drive and work in a day, and how much rest do you need before you roll again?
- Tell me about a time dispatch asked for a run your hours would not allow. How did it end?
- How do you verify weight distribution per axle when the customer loads the trailer without you?
- What trailer configuration and coupling type have you driven most over the past two years?
- Have you crossed the border with a commercial load? Which documents did you have on hand?
- Describe the tightest backing manoeuvre you have done and how you went about it.
Timelines and difficulties
The bottleneck is not interest in the job, it is the licence. A candidate who does not yet hold Class 1 must have held a Class 5 licence for 24 months, complete the training that is now mandatory, then pass three exams. Job Bank still rates the occupation’s outlook in Quebec as limited, and both readings hold at once: the driving record, the demerit points and the medical report rule out a share of licence holders before the interview. The rest of the sorting happens on the type of run. A driver who gets home every night and a long-haul driver are not looking for the same job, and the F endorsement or a dangerous goods certificate narrows the pool further: both are earned separately from the licence, so a candidate can hold Class 1 without either one. State the run, the shift and how you pay in the first conversation, and check the F endorsement on the licence itself rather than on the résumé.
We run this search for employers in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, the North Shore and the South Shore. Our recruitment service: logistics and supply chain
If the placement does not hold six months, we replace it.
The replacement is on us. You do not pay twice for the same role.
A role to fill?
Fifteen minutes on the phone is enough to know whether we can deliver your mandate, and to tell you straight whether the salary range holds.
Talk to a recruiter