OTA Dispatch Issue 4, 2021

26 Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc. Oregon Truck Dispatch Are Your Drivers TAT Trained? Join UPS to Spot Signs of Human Trafficking OREGON’S TRUCKING INDUSTRY has always been focused on community. Our own as an industry, and those we live and work in. The pandemic has certainly put focus on how important community-wide involvement is when it comes to responding to the challenges we face. In Oregon, a growing problem is one that thrives in the shadows—human trafficking. Another article in this issue outlines some of the recent news items around this topic and discusses how to combat this “industry” that some experts are predicting will overtake the illegal drug trade in terms of money. There are a number of carriers who are already in the fight. Some are OTA members and one carrier of note in this arena is UPS. At the end of January 2020, UPS announced that it would begin training its delivery drivers to detect signs of sex trafficking. This policy would extend to both neighborhood and freight drivers, reaching a total of more than 130,000 drivers and supervisors nationwide. UPS first teamed up with Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) in 2016. Seventy-five of these UPS TAT trained employees are in Oregon. To date, TAT has trained almost half a million professionals, and UPS is just one company that is benefitting from the training programs available. The training UPS drivers received helped them detect red flags when identifying victims of this $150 billion business (it’s estimated to surpass $200 billion soon). Markings like tattoos (which can indicate trafficker branding), or hints of abuse or drug addiction can be signs of human trafficking. Trained drivers know to take notes on specifics: vehicle color, time, exact location—and notify the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Over the last decade, almost 2,000 calls to the hotline have been from callers specifically identifying as drivers; however, that’s only about 1% of calls the hotline has received in a similar time period. This leaves a lot of work to be done and a lot of ground that truck drivers can cover once they’re trained. Legislators are working to have programs like those TAT offers be part of all entry-level or commercial driving certifications. TAT programs are currently implemented in twelve states’ certification processes and are being considered in others. Ohio, Arkansas, Texas, Washington, and Kansas now use TAT training as part of the curriculum for licensing either entry-level or all commercial drivers in their states. According to the TAT website, fewer than 20 organizations in Oregon—and only a handful of OTA members—have TAT trained individuals. OTA has already taken steps to enhance our partnership with TAT and we’ll be sharing more news in 2022. In the meantime, please encourage your drivers and other employees to take the TAT training. It’s not a huge time commitment, but it could have a huge impact. After all, when an issue is about a community, it’s going to take the entire community to tackle it. Visit trained.truckersagainsttrafficking.org to get started.