Trucking Industry Resources to Counter Human Trafficking

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Survivors of human trafficking report being subjected to the crime through all modes of transport, including trucking. Human traffickers exploit their victims in truck stops and rest areas in urban and rural communities. 

This page offers information, training, printable materials, graphics, and resources for truck drivers to counter human trafficking.

Trucking-Related Data

Transport-related data in the U.S. includes the Human Trafficking Institute’s (an NGO) Federal Human Trafficking Report of federal sex trafficking cases filed in 2023, which found that defendants used commercial vehicles in three percent of the cases.

Survivors of human trafficking report being subjected to the crime through all modes of transport. The NGO United Against Slavery conducted a National Outreach Survey for Transportation in 2021 that included 159 survivor respondents that utilized transportation during recruitment, exploitation, and extraction or escape. The survey found that 81 percent of 107 survivors of human trafficking utilized transportation during their recruitment, 76 percent used transportation during the course of their exploitation, and 52 percent stated that transportation facilitated their exit or escape from their trafficking situation. Of 97 survivor respondents, five percent were relocated during their exploitation through moving trucks/vans, four percent by semi-trucks, three percent by cargo vans, ten percent by passenger

Indicators of Human Trafficking in the Trucking Industry

As a trucking industry employee, you play a critical role in preventing, recognizing, and reporting suspected instances of human trafficking in and around truck stops and rest areas.

Learn the signs or indicators of human trafficking, which can be observed while on the road, stopping for gas, and at truck stops and rest areas. 

Initiatives and Training

Transportation Leaders Against Human Trafficking

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Leaders Against Human Trafficking (TLAHT) initiative is comprised of transportation and travel industry stakeholders working jointly to maximize their collective impact in combating human trafficking. TLAHT offers a 20-minute multimodal training video for transportation employees and the traveling public. Access TLAHT’s multimodal human trafficking awareness training.

Awareness Materials and Resources

Download, share, and display posters, pocket cards, social media graphics, and other graphics to help spread the message on how to identify and report suspected instances of human trafficking. Posters and social media graphics include a QR code that links to the TLAHT awareness campaign page. We request that users sign the TLAHT pledge to utilize the materials.