DeGroote School of Business professor Elkafi Hassini is co-leading research that aims to address labour shortages and a lack of diversity in  freight and logistics, with a focus on barriers facing youth, women and racialized workers.

Hassini, a  professor of operations management and the chair of the Smart Freight Centre, has heard from students whose parents worked in transportation and warned them to stay away from the industry, and from trucking organizations that say companies have had trouble filling driver vacancies.

These interactions, combined with his discussions on equity, diversity and inclusion on committees such as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), sparked Hassini’s latest research interest.

Led by Hassini and Mehdi Nourinejad of York University, the research focuses on labour demographics and dynamics, including strategies for addressing labour shortages and lack of diversity in the freight and logistics labour force, with a particular focus on barriers and challenges experienced by youth, women and racialized workers.

“There is little research in that area, and I think there’s more interest in EDI now,” says Hassini.

“The closer I got to the topic, I heard about instances of mistreatment. It’s really time to be inclusive in that industry. So we’re trying to do our best to look at the issues and how we can help from the research perspective.”

More about Elkafi Hassini’s research: Sustainable same-day solutions

In its early stages, the research is among 24 projects being conducted through City Logistics for the Urban Economy (CLUE).

The Smart Freight Centre research program is a multi-university, multi-sector partnership that is working strategically to tackle goods movement issues and address an interrelated set of challenges and opportunities arising from industry trends.

“When we started last summer with this research, we found that sometimes there’s ambiguity around some of the EDI concepts such as equity, equality, and fairness,” says Hassini.

“What’s the difference? And how do we distinguish between those? We thought it is important that we start on common grounds when it comes to the basic terminology and then explore its implications for the freight transportation sector.”

Hassini and his colleagues are also planning a workshop with practitioners to better understand their needs and effective ways measure EDI efforts in the industry.

“Our goal is to come up with some standard tool for assessing EDI that we can share with trucking and logistics companies to use for benchmarking and improving their EDI practices.”

Hassini hopes the research can contribute to major issues that companies face.

These include a driver shortage and attracting younger employees. According to a Trucking HR Canada report, the country is expected to be short 25,000 truck drivers as early as 2023, representing a 25-per-cent increase over the unfilled vacancies in 2019.

“In conversations I had with the Ontario Trucking Association, I heard that companies are having some difficulty in attracting young drivers,” says Hassini.

“Most of the drivers are aging and there are concerns trucking companies can’t get a new generation of drivers. There’s a need for hiring labour, but there is lack of interest in certain jobs.”

Hassini hopes the labour dynamics research will help resolve the mismatch of labour supply and demand in the freight industry.

“Part of the initiatives we’re looking at is how to be more inclusive in this industry, such as inviting a driver to be part of the decision making in choosing the best delivery route.”

EDI research at the Smart  Freight Symposium

To begin to publicize their EDI work, Hassini’s research partner, Nourinejad, recently presented an overview of their project during SFC’s annual Smart Freight Symposium, a two-day virtual event hosted by DeGroote in November.

The symposium brings together research experts with speakers from government, industry and non-profits.

“That’s really the principle behind the symposium, that we all learn from each other, whether it’s what’s happening in industry, what companies are dealing with in terms of challenges, or governments in terms of policy, and some of the issues that they may want us to incorporate in our research,” Hassini says.

“Then from the university side, we present what we’re working on, and how it relates to their challenges. Everyone that’s associated with SFC appreciates working on problems like EDI that are so relevant.”

The event’s first session focussed on EDI, with three female leaders discussing their personal experiences, the state of EDI in Canada’s transportation and logistics industry, and its value in the workplace.

Events such as the Symposium provide an outlet to advance crucial topics and an opportunity to reflect on organizational processes in a learning environment, says discussion moderator Dale Lynch, team leader of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s System Policy Office.

“Intersectionality is needed to have fresh perspectives,” Lynch says. “It has to be part of everyone’s ongoing work to improve meaningful representation and participation.

“By fostering partnerships that intentionally include a variety of people, more people will feel that they’re part of solving the challenges that impact everyone.”

Learn more about this research at the DeGroote School of Business.