Navigating faith on the road

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Canada is home to thousands of Sikh truck drivers, crossing North America in cabs that double as kitchens, bedrooms and places to pray. In a single week, some will see more of the continent than most people will in a lifetime, from major cities to mountain ranges and endless miles of road. But the road can be a hard place to practise faith built on family, community, and a vegetarian diet. Journeys can be long, food options limited, and drivers say discrimination is rising. Yet many choose to respond with acts of kindness, carrying their faith with them. Megan Lawton travels to Ontario to join Sikh truckers on the road. She stops at a local Gurdwara, where drivers reconnect with community, and come together to instill the values of their faith in their children.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:09.6	On an average, like I drive like 10,000 miles a month.
0:13.7	So, like, for a year, like, it becomes like 120,000 something like that.
0:19.7	Wow.
0:20.2	Yeah, it's long. Yeah, it's long.
0:21.4	Yeah, it's too much.
0:23.6	Sukpal Singh sits behind the steering wheel of his truck,
0:28.0	about an hour from Toronto on Canada's East Coast.
0:31.6	Here, there are more than a million trucks,
0:34.2	just like his criss-crossing the country's roads each day. It can be a tough job, long hours
0:41.0	alone, weeks on the road and little time at home. And more and more, these jobs are being done
0:47.8	by Sikh truck drivers, including Sukhā. Especially whenever I go to some remote areas quite far from the cities. I know there are a lot of
0:56.3	few people like they don't know about Sikhism. This is the documentary from the BBC World Service.
1:03.2	I'm Megan Lawton. And on this episode of Heart and Soul, which explores approaches to spirituality
1:08.8	from around the world, I'm in Canada to find out how the country's thousands of Sikh truckers navigate religion on the road.
1:17.1	Sometimes they think that we are Muslims.
1:19.7	Sometimes they ask about rituals.
1:22.2	Even they're sometimes surprised by the turban.
1:25.3	So I always feel proud that I'm conveying my message. I am able to
1:29.8	tell them about my religion. So especially the trucking, it gives me a platform to reach so many people.
1:35.0	Do you always feel respected by people when you're out on the road or do you come up against
1:38.7	ignorance sometimes? Nine out of ten times, we always get some respect from the people. But yeah,
	...

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