CVSA Expands Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is expanding its Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative from three to five days for 2023.

CVSA launched this effort in early 2022 as a three-day awareness and outreach effort to educate commercial motor vehicle drivers, motor carriers, law enforcement officers, and the general public about the crime of human trafficking, the signs to look for and what to do if you suspect someone is being trafficked.

Building on the success of the 2022 three-day campaign, the CVSA Human Trafficking Prevention Program decided to extend the campaign to five days for 2023.

In 2022, CVSA reported:

• 2,460 individual law enforcement officers/troopers/inspectors participated.
• There were 163 reported events (possible indicators of human trafficking or documented cases).
• 13,274 wallet cards were distributed.
• 6,355 window decals were distributed.
• 1,818 presentations were delivered.
• There were 640 media contacts.

All three countries of the Alliance – Canada, Mexico and the United States – plan to participate. To capitalize on each country’s already-established Human Trafficking Awareness Day, CVSA scheduled its initiative to align with that day in each country:

• United States: Jan. 9-13, 2023
• Canada: Feb. 20-24
• Mexico: March 13-17

According to the United Nations, human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime. Human traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.

In preparation for the 2023 Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative, CVSA is offering human trafficking awareness resources to its membership and working with the Truckers Against Trafficking organization to distribute wallet cards and window decals.

During the five-day awareness initiative in each country, CVSA jurisdictions will note human trafficking awareness and outreach efforts and projects and submit that data to the Alliance. The results will be released in summer 2023.