Do Long-Haul Truck Drivers Qualify for the Transport Category Draw?

You’ve spent years behind the wheel on long-haul routes, and you’ve heard Express Entry runs something called a “Transport category,” so the logic writes itself: your job must be exactly what that category was built for. Truck drivers transport category express entry questions like this come up constantly, and the honest 2026 answer isn’t the simple yes most drivers expect.

What does the current Transport category actually cover?

Not trucking. IRCC’s 2026 Transport occupations category, announced 18 February 2026 as part of that year’s category slate, lists four occupations: air pilots, flight engineers and flying instructors; automotive service technicians; and aircraft mechanics and inspectors. That’s an aviation-and-automotive-servicing list, not a driving list, and no round has yet been held under it as of the most recent data in this research.

Is trucking included in transport category eligibility, then, ever?

It was, once. The Transport occupations category that ran from 2023 through 2024 — three rounds between September 2023 and December 2023, at Comprehensive Ranking System cut-offs between 425 and 435 — used a genuinely different, truck-driver-heavy occupation list. That version was dropped when IRCC narrowed its categories for 2025, and it did not return in its old form for 2026. The category name survived; the occupations behind it changed completely.

Does the truck driver NOC code matter here at all?

It matters for general Express Entry eligibility, just not for this particular category. A separate, earlier change is worth knowing about: on 16 November 2022, IRCC moved the whole system from NOC 2016 to NOC 2021, and that transition made several occupations newly eligible for Express Entry in general, transport truck drivers among them. That’s a question of whether your occupation can be represented in an Express Entry profile at all — a “yes” — and a completely different question from whether a category-based round currently exists that specifically targets it, which right now is a “no.”

What does long haul driver express entry eligibility actually look like today?

Realistic through the general system, not through a category. A profile built around a trucking occupation can still sit in the pool and be reached by whichever program or category it happens to qualify for — Canadian Experience Class if the experience was gained in Canada, a provincial nomination, or French-language proficiency if the language ability is there. What it can’t currently do is rely on a “Transport category” invitation, because that category has moved on to a different occupation list entirely.

What should a driver do with this?

Stop reading “Transport category” as a synonym for “trucking route,” and don’t build a truck drivers transport category express entry plan around a list that has already changed twice since 2023. Check the occupation list that’s actually current, not the one that ran two or three years ago, before building any strategy around it. Given how much rides on exact occupation codes and timing, working through where your specific role sits is worth doing with a licensed RCIC or Canadian immigration lawyer rather than assuming from the category’s name alone.

Cape2Canada keeps its free Express Entry Explained guide updated with which occupations sit inside which category each year — a faster check than trying to remember which version of “Transport” is currently live.