If the average person were asked who was working on the front lines in the United States to help end human trafficking they would most likely answer with FBI, local police, and other agencies. This answer would not be wrong, but it does leave out the largest group and that is over the road truck drivers. There are over 700,000 truck drivers across the United States that have been trained to look for red flags that can help authorities put a stop to human trafficking. Most of these truck drivers were trained by T.A.T. (Truckers Against Trafficking) a Colorado based non-profit that trains those in the transportation industry what signs to look out for.

You may be asking “why truckers?” Traffickers try to take advantage of the transportation system as it is easier for them to move their victims across the United States. Truckers are in the perfect places to scope out human trafficking as they travel to the same locations that traffickers use. Places such as truck stops, hotels, motels, restaurants, roadside rest stops and other various industries. At any given time, there are more truck drivers on the roads than there are police or other authorities.

“They are making the calls that are actually saving lives,” said Kendis Paris, the group’s executive director. She co-founded TAT with her mother and sisters in 2009 with hopes of ending modern-day slavery and seeking justice for the vulnerable and exploited (1). Kendis mentions Kevin Kimmel a trucker who saved a young woman from human trafficking and prostitution as well as Arian Taylor who saved a 19-year-old woman escape a sex trafficking attempt as evidence that TAT is helping save lives.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/truckers-fighting-human-trafficking-are-trained-be-alert-late-night-n1120661