Today marks the start of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s five-day Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative across the United States. Through Jan. 16, law enforcement agencies, motor carriers, and transportation safety organizations will conduct coordinated outreach at truck stops, weigh stations, and carrier facilities to educate drivers on how to recognize and report this crime. If you have been driving for any length of time, you have probably heard the pitch: Truckers are the eyes and ears of America’s highways. It has become something of a cliche. But here is the thing. When it comes to human trafficking, that statement is not marketing copy. It is an operational reality. Human trafficking is a $150 billion global criminal enterprise that has been reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, on tribal lands, and within U.S. territories. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, over 9,600 potential cases encompassing nearly 17,000 potential victims were reported in 2023 alone. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was informed about more than 18,400 possible cases of child sex trafficking that same year. Those numbers only scratch the surface. The underground nature of this crime means hundreds of thousands of cases go unseen and unreported every year. window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot(‘/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1’, [[300, 100], [320, 50], [728, 90], [468, 60]], ‘div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0’).defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps.banner1).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); }); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0’); }); The Rise of Truckers Against Trafficking In 2009, Lyn Leeburg and her daughters founded Truckers Against Trafficking in Oklahoma with…
