New lessons in motion
Jamal Dalqaf taught math and physics in his native Somalia. But soon the circumstances of life profoundly engaged the problems of time, distance and inertia that this curriculum only contemplated. Fleeing the country’s collapse into civil war, he and his family wound up in Uganda. Taking what employment came his way, he began dispatching trucks for a transport company in the capital, Kampala. Arriving years later in the US as a refugee-assailee, Jamal’s family found their way to Minneapolis from Texas.
Jamal said he contemplated a return to teaching, but this would have required a new university education. Instead he pursued the more pragmatic path open to him. In a series of jobs with transport companies, he progressed from a truck loader to mechanic to long-haul driver. He got to see America from end to end, gratifying his inquisitive mind and introducing him to a cultural landscape as vast as the one he crossed by truck. He fondly recalls seeing Amish people riding in horse carriages in rural Ohio and, after a truck breakdown in Connecticut, being invited to stay with a Jewish family whose kosher diet satisfied the halal dietary requirements of his Muslim faith.
He also began a family, and with it came the thought that he could provide better for his children as a business owner than an employee. Friends referred him to ADC, and in 2005 he completed a business planning workshop.
“They knew about running an American business, and also they were very well prepared with knowledge of the transportation industry,” Jamal said of ADC. “But best was that they understood where I was coming from. They knew my homeland, my language and my hunger to prosper and really build the kind of respected life in America that I had back home.”
ADC loan Business Development Director Hussein Farah worked with Jamal and business partner Abshir Mohamed to plan and incorporate Dalqaf Transportation in 2006. In January of 2007, ADC extended Islamic-compliant financing to help purchase the company’s first truck tractor, a 2002 Frieghtliner with 500,000 miles.
“That’s not a lot of miles for a truck,” Jamal said, with evident sympathy for things well-traveled but eager to begin the next journey.
Now he and Abshir are on the road, driving as a team to maximize the business’ productivity. Eventually, with more experience, will come the opportunity for Jamal to become his own distributor, increasing profit margins and opening the door for him to buy more trucks, hire drivers, and say goodbye to life behind the wheel. For Jamal Dulqaf, future transportation executive, success will mean he can stay close to home.
