When the United States authorities wanted to impose the electronic logging device (ELD), a good number of Sikh truckers had joined other truckers to register their protest.

For some weeks, US-based Punjabi Radio USA, for example, was running stories of the Sikh truckers’ solidarity with the wider trucking community. Sikh truckers came on the air, urging fellow truckers to join the protest.

For many Sikh truckers, this was probably their first serious wide-scale collaboration with other US-based truckers.

“You got the American-bred boy trucker standing there right next to the guy that came from India … fighting together,” Scott Reed, among organisers of a part of the October protest events that happened in Washington, DC, tells Overdrive magazine.

The magazine has a Sikh trucker on its cover for the February 2018 issue.  Racchpal Singh Dhillon, one of many Sikh truckers who went to Washington, D.C., to protest the ELD mandate last year.

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Racchpal came to the US in 2004 from India and quickly earned his commercial driving license. In 2014, he started his own company, OnTime Trans, based in Noblesville, Indiana. He now owns and operates 16 trucks. His wife, Nancy, emigrated from India in 2012 and now handles OnTime’s accounting, paperwork and management, according to the magazine.

The EDL issue climaxed in October 2017 when the truckers launched a week-long protest against the ELD in the nation’s capital at Washington DC. Badged Operation Black and Blue, the Sikh truckers, too, made their presence felt. In essence, the truckers felt that the ELD mandate was excessive and an unfair piece of regulation.

In its feature story for its February 2018 issue, Overdrive captured the involvement of the Sikh trucking community.

Below are some excerpts from the report entitled ‘Into the limelight: Sikh truckers in America‘:

Sikhs have been a growing part of America’s professional driver force for three decades. Though there are tens of thousands of them in trucking, their non-Sikh counterparts have little information and a lot of misconceptions about them. They’re mostly second- and third-generation U.S. citizens, but often mistaken for Arabs because of commonly worn turbans and long beards.

That confusion began to change for some anti-electronic logging device-mandate activists in October when groups of Sikhs joined other passionate owner-operators to protest the implementation of the mandate. Owner-operators who’d never gotten to know this group of truckers found a new appreciation for a misunderstood and occasionally maligned group.

Scott Reed, among organizers of a part of the October protest events that happened in Washington, D.C., sees those efforts as improving the ties that bind “the cultural diversity among truckers. … You got the American-bred boy trucker standing there right next to the guy that came from India … fighting together. To see the way that took place, learning from each other – we broke some stereotypes down there.”

Organizing the activist Sikhs came about in part due to the efforts of Gurinder Singh Khalsa of the Indianapolis-based Sikhs Political Action Committee. He argues the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has not approved each of the dozens of ELD devices and that the mandate will result in economic hardship.

In October, SikhsPAC announced a partnership with Forrest Lucas, founder of Corona, California-based Lucas Oil Products, to fight the ELD mandate. They made their case in Washington, D.C., along with protests there from other groups. Concurrently, three California rallies in Sacramento, Fresno and Bakersfield were organized and attended by Sikh truckers.

A convoy that started at the Sikh Temple in Yuba City and rolled through Sacramento capped the protest week. A later ELD protest rally in Yuba City coincided with the 38th annual Sikh Parade, the largest Sikh event outside of India.

As Overdrive went to press, SikhsPAC and a group representing Punjabis with roots in northern India petitioned FMCSA for a delay in ELD compliance for small business trucker members and members who haul agricultural products.

Khalsa says Sikhs have been growing trucking businesses in America since the 1980s. That’s when waves of immigrants came here fleeing anti-Sikh violence sparked by the 1984 assassination of Indira Ghandi, India’s first female prime minister. Most Sikh truckers are owner-operators based on the West Coast and in geographic clusters that include Indiana and areas in New York, New Jersey and Virginia, among others.

Khalsa says he and other Sikh immigrants gravitated to trucking for its business potential. He and his brother started a trucking company in 1998.

“The goal was to work hard, earn a good living and get your own authority as soon as possible,” he says. The tight-knit community expanded to help transition newly arrived Sikhs into trucking. Trucking schools such as Fresno, California-based Dashmesh Trucking School catered to Sikhs.

“For the newly arrived Sikhs fleeing the genocide in India, language was a barrier at first,” Khalsa says. “There was an effort then to penetrate the trucking industry, where a strong work ethic made trucking a good path. Once we became business owners, we could not only provide for our families but also stay faithful to our beliefs.”

Now there are as many as 150,000 Sikhs in driving jobs ranging from Class 8 long-haul to local delivery and vocational work, estimates SikhsPAC.

Research shows that most Americans know little to nothing about Sikhs. Mistaken perceptions have resulted in verbal abuse, violence and discrimination against Sikhs since 9/11.

But there are other challenges that come from following their religious beliefs. Because traditional Sikhs don’t cut their hair, some have run afoul of corporate policies at fleets that require hair samples for drug testing.

Harsimran Kaur, senior counsel for the Sikh Coalition, a legal defense group, was the lead attorney in a case involving J.B. Hunt Transportation and four Sikh truckers who refused to provide hair samples. The four reached a $260,000 settlement with the company in November 2016. As part of the settlement, J.B. Hunt agreed to amend company policies to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.

“No one should have to face humiliation because of their religious beliefs,” said lead complainant Jagtar Singh Anandpuri. “I have been driving a truck for years, and I know there is nothing about my faith that interferes with my ability to do my job.”

Kaur says she’s not heard of further complaints about hair testing obstacles since the case and supports companies that want to explore more extensive testing options, such as nail testing. “We are not asking the industry to weaken their testing or safety standards,” she says. “We are just asking [them] to accommodate religious articles of faith.”

Laramie, Wyoming-based small fleet owner-operator Mintu Pandher says the people he encounters throughout his travels treat him with respect. “I’ve been here for 17 years, and I’ve never had any issues.” Pandher stands out with the traditional Sikh turban and beard, though he often dons a hard hat instead when at a location requiring it.

For Sikhs, a small minority in India, there is no “my country back home,” he says. “If you live somewhere, you defend that place. … Since I’m living here, this is my land. It’s a defensive instinct.”

Scott Reed and Pennsylvania-headquartered Landis & Sons owner-operator Mike Landis say they walked away from the D.C. protests with a new appreciation for Sikh truckers.

“I grew up with 9/11 happening when I was in high school,” says Landis, who runs his independent business in a 1999 Peterbilt cabover. “I’ve always been pretty closed-minded about anyone who wears a turban or looks remotely anything like the terrorists do. I’ve never really been ashamed to say that.”

Landis had been told the Sikhs are a peaceful people, but didn’t care, continuing to resort to false stereotypes. “But when they showed up [for the Washington, D.C., protests] and they wanted to shake our hands and thank us for being there, and seeing how many of them showed up, I would say it was four-to-one they outnumbered us ‘proud loud-mouthed Americans,’ ” he jokes.

“Then here you have these people who know a lot of people look down on them just because of how they’re dressing and how they look, and they’re thanking us for being there in our trucks. It was extremely humbling.”

Reed says he also “ate crow” over his own past statements in the wake of the D.C. demonstrations, and he believes ripple effects from a new appreciation and a sense of unity will continue for years.

“Man, I really feel like a piece of crap for feeling and thinking the things I’ve felt over the years,” Landis adds. “I’ll never feel the same way about them again. I’d defend them with everything I’ve got if I had to.”

To read the full story, go here.

[ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs in Southeast Asia and surrounding countries. We have a Facebook page, do give it a LIKE. Follow us on Twitter. Visit our website: www.asiasamachar.com] 17837

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