Driving is serious business

Viney Sharma 

Insurance companies in several Canadian provinces are battling a unique problem due to the migrant population’s fetish for vanity licence plates. It is a common sight to come across such plates promoting drink driving in anglicised Punjabi. One such plate reads “PK-TUNN” (meaning ‘I am drunk’). While another goes like “PK 3PEG” (translates as ‘after three drinks’). There are many more on same lines… and it worsens in provinces like Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia and Ontario — largely dominated by the Punjabi population. It is not that the Punjabi wit is being fumed at here, but the fact that recklessness being insinuated in plates is actually a grim reminder of the dangerous trend of reckless driving.

Senior community members have taken the cognisance of this trend in the backdrop of the recent incident involving a tractor-trailer collision with a bus that led to the killing of 16 hockey players, with one Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, 29, from Calgary, behind the wheels. Convictions for such fatal accidents can result in a sentence of up to 14 years, while injuring someone could invite a 10-year jail term. 

The development stirred a storm on social media, with some calling for stringent regulations and bringing the trucking companies run by Punjabis under the scanner. The fatal incident spurred a ‘GoFundMe’ campaign that was the most successful crowd fund in the Canadian history. More than $15 million was raised online from around the world. The funds will be transferred to a non-profit corporation, “Humboldt Broncos Memorial Fund Inc”, which wil use them for the families of the victims.

“While youngsters may find such vanity plates amusing, these don’t present our community in good light. Authorities should crackdown on such elements. It doesn’t matter which community they come from,” says Gurdial Singh from Brampton, adding that, “For people earning their livelihood through driving, it is a serious business.”   

Lucrative option 

Punjabis’ love automobiles and that’s the reason why luxury carmakers — Toyota, Mercedes, Daimler Chrysler, etc., prefer launching new models in cities like Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

In North America, Punjabis own many trucking companies — some owning the fleet of as many as 500 trucks.  

For new immigrants, getting into driving gives an opportunity to make quick money. While any normal job would fetch them not more than 2,000-2,200 Canadian dollars (approximately Rs 1,09,200) per month, as a truck driver they can easily make between 4,500-6,000 Canadian dollars (Rs 2,86,000) per month.  “The demand for both drivers and trucks is likely to go higher by 2020. With the rise in population and demand, the number of large trucks on our roads has surged over the past decade from 7,40,000 to more than 12,00,000,” says Surjinder Singh, 69, who owns a fleet of 40 trucks, largely operating between Canada and America. 

Singh, started with two trucks in 1979, while working for a granite export company. “I was a truck driver in India. A friend advised me to move to Canada. Initial days were full of struggle. As time passed by I made sure I paid taxes to build a good credit score. A few years later I was eligible for mortgage. The demand was high and it’s still high. People have made fortunes but some did bring bad name as well, by getting into drug smuggling, etc,” says Singh. 

Occupational hazards

Canada’s humongous size with a land mass of 99,84,670 km makes it the largest country in the world. A road network spanning nearly 9,00,000 km gives them the right opportunity. But it is not an easy game to drive for such a long duration and drivers losing their mind is quite common. Malkeet Singh, 29, was running a gymnasium in Mohali till six months back before immigrating to Canada. He had to take a break for a month as long trails to the US made him hypertensive. “I would see a wide plain long road till miles all the time and nothing else. I was never used to this lifestyle. Even when I would sleep I would dream as if I am driving. My doctor has advised me to take an off or change my job,” says Malkeet.

Advertisements promising huge remunerations to drivers are common in Punjab. Anyone with a driving licence of a heavy vehicle is welcome. Accidents in Canada never go unnoticed like those in India. A number of unskilled drivers languishing behind jails have gone enormously up, despite some provinces like Ontario raising the bar for licence test.

A high demand for long-haul truck drivers means a Canada visa is widely available to foreign workers looking for jobs in Canada, in this occupation. “The Canadian trucking industry is facing a shortage of long-haul drivers to the tune of 48,000 by 2024, meaning those seeking immigration to Canada have an excellent opportunity,” says Jagtar Bhambi, an immigration consultant from Banga in Punjab.  A search of Canada’s federal government’s job bank reveals nearly 4,000 vacancies, each one of them with a possible route to a Canada visa.

“At fault are the employers and the agents who send them without due diligence. Let’s admit many come with fake driving experience,” says Harbaksh Singh, who works for Canadian logistics company. “Nearly 1,800 Canadians are killed each year and another 9,000 seriously injured in collisions involving a heavy truck. Most people blame the truck drivers, rather than the stressful, sleep-deprived conditions under which they are forced to drive.”

While Jaskirat Sidhu, was not under the influence of alcohol. Cases of drink driving have devastated Punjabi families. Vancouver-based Sukhbir Gill’s world changed the day he crashed his newly bought truck into a skyway. His son was 10 at that time. “He was the sole earning member and has been behind the bars for the last four years. We are relying on assistance from the government. I don't think life would be same again. It was after some 10 years we were able to secure loans,” says his wife Gurpreet Kaur.