Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/933951
30 | Overdrive | February 2018 S ikhs have been a growing part of America's professional driver force for three decades. Though there are tens of thousands of them in truck- ing, 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-ELD activists in October when groups of Sikhs joined other pas- sionate owner-operators to protest the implementation of the electronic log- ging device 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 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," Reed says. "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 Jenna Ruiz Into the limelight Sikhs' strong ELD activism helps build bridges with traditional American truckers CAROLYN MASON AND TODD DILLS 30 | Overdrive | February 2018 SikhsPAC chairman Gurinder Singh Khalsa, left, was active in lobbying against the ELD mandate. Sukhwant Singh owns Taste of India restaurant at Spiceland (Indiana) Truck Plaza.