washington business
Driving Change Through Awareness
UPS is using the eyes and ears of the company’ s nearly 8,000 freight truck drivers to identify and report human trafficking along the nation’ s vast highway system.
Bobbi Cussins
Truck stops are fast becoming a magnet for human trafficking. With eyes and ears on roads, highways and byways around the country all hours of the day, UPS is utilizing its unique position to train its freight truck drivers to recognize the signs of human trafficking, contact the appropriate authorities and possibly save a life.
At A Glance
In 2016, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimated that one in six endangered runaways reported to them were likely sex trafficking victims.
In 2003, Washington was the first state to pass a law criminalizing human trafficking and has the most stringent law in the country.
“ Help me” was all that was scribbled on a young girl’ s note pressed to the window of the moving car.
The UPS freight truck driver, unsure what to do, did nothing. He didn’ t understand the child could be a victim of human trafficking. It’ s a memory that haunts him even today, two years after the incident.
But, a new partnership between UPS and Truckers Against Trafficking( TAT) and the Department of Homeland Security’ s Blue Campaign is giving the company’ s 8,000 longhaul freight truck drivers across the nation the training and tools to spot the signs of human trafficking and information on how to notify the proper authorities.
That many eyes and ears on the nations millions of miles of highways and back roads makes UPS a valuable partner in the fight against human trafficking.
“ When we looked at our footprint on the road, we said‘ We want a policy, we want to make sure people understand how we feel about this issue,’” said Nicole Clifton, vice president, UPS Global Public Affairs.“ We want every driver to have the education so that if they see something, they say something.”
UPS partnered with Truckers Against Trafficking and the Department of Homeland Security’ s Blue Campaign in 2016 to train the company’ s roughly 8,000 long-haul freight truck drivers on how to spot human trafficking and report it to law enforcement.
UPS is currently taking steps to roll out the training to its entire driver network— nearly 80,000 local package truck drivers across the nation.
Human trafficking has been reported in all 50 states and truck stops are becoming one of the major magnet sites for the trade and sale of human victims.
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