UPS training drivers to spot signs of sex trafficking: ‘This issue impacts everyone’

UPS will train its delivery drivers to identify signs of sex trafficking, according to CNN.

UPS will train more than 130,000 drivers nationwide, including those who go into neighborhoods, and has already trained freight drivers on identifying sex trafficking, CNN reported. The company is partnering with Truckers Against Trafficking to train drivers on signs, including “branding” tattoos on trafficking victims.

“It puts a different layer on their relationship that we have with our drivers to understand it’s not just about the company. It’s not just about our employees, but it’s truly about our community,” said Danelle McCusker Rees, Human Resources President for UPS’s domestic operations. “This issue impacts everyone.”

Truck drivers go to rest areas, truck stops, and other locations used by human traffickers to force victims into prostitution, according to American Trucker.

Truckers Against Trafficking was created in 2009 and has trained more than 453,000 people through its program, according to the magazine.

Drivers can help victims by knowing the signs, including noticing any minor engaged in commercial sex trade, anyone who appears to be under the control of a pimp or who has branding of a trafficker’s name, and signs of drug abuse.

There were over 10,000 human trafficking cases recorded in the US in 2018 — a 25% jump in cases from 2017, according to Polaris, a nonprofit that combats human trafficking.

The organization also identified more than 23,000 survivors through data from the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline.

This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 8:37 AM with the headline "UPS training drivers to spot signs of sex trafficking: ‘This issue impacts everyone’."