Tire Industry Reps Gather to Fight Human Trafficking
Tire industry leaders recently joined state and local law enforcement, nonprofit organizations and community resource groups in Akron, Ohio, for a Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) coalition event.
Bridgestone Americas Inc., Haltec Corp., the Human Trafficking Initiative and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office sponsored the March 24 meeting, which led guests through a series of presentations, panel discussions and activities designed to educate participants about human trafficking.
"Human trafficking is happening every day,” said Sara Sefried, director of strategic partnerships for TAT. “It’s happening throughout the United States in over 25 industries, including transportation.”
Laura Cyrus, senior director of industry training and outreach for TAT, said that because truck drivers, fleet operators and other transportation professionals are the “eyes and ears” of the nation’s roads, making sure they are trained on the signs of human trafficking is essential.
"We have trained over 2.5 million individuals with our free awareness training,” said Cyrus. “We know this represents thousands of calls made by truck drivers alone to the national hotline or to local law enforcement that have helped to identify countless victims of human trafficking.”
The National Human Trafficking Hotline reported that over a five-year span, 41% of the cases that were identified by truck drivers involved victims who were minors, said Cyrus.
Bridgestone has supported TAT since 2013 through initiatives and events that equip its teams and customers with the knowledge and tools to identify, report and prevent future crimes.
Josh Holland, vice president of network development, mobility tech stack and fleet care solutions development for Bridgestone Americas, said that since transportation professionals are constantly traveling on America’s roads, they play a crucial role in identifying human trafficking crimes.
Holland said Bridgestone is continuing to partner with TAT and involve its dealer network to help prevent human trafficking instances across the country.
"We bring in our partners and encourage them to take part,” said Holland, who is the chair of the board of directors for TAT. “We give them visibility to events that are taking place and they get involved. We’ve brought in a few of our dealer partners that are now donors and sponsors, but they’ve also rolled out training programs and are bringing awareness to the issue” within their own organizations.
As part of its goal to activate fleets, truck stop partners and dealers, Bridgestone has launched an anti-human trafficking policy and training platform that all employees are required to take in an effort to increase their knowledge and awareness of human trafficking. “All of us have a unique position in some way,” said Holland. “We have a network and we should all use it."
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-based McCarthy Tire Service Co. Inc., Green Bay, Wis.-based Pomp’s Tire Service Inc. and Erlanger, Ky.-based Bob Sumerel Tire Co. are among the tire dealerships and Bridgestone customers that are involved with TAT’s efforts.
"We think (Truckers Against Trafficking) is a very worthy cause,” said Gary Schroeder, chief operating officer of Bob Sumerel Tire, who attended the event. “We view this as a way to give back.
"We feel we can leverage” Bob Sumerel Tire’s resources to help Truckers Against Trafficking and its mission. “We have close to 200 vehicles that are on the road every day. That's a lot of eyes we have out there.”
James Brott, managing director of Great Lakes Best-One Tire & Service, attended the meeting for the first time with the company’s comptroller and human resources leader, Kimberly Keyser.
"Our customers, the trucking companies, are a big intersection (for spotting potential trafficking crimes), especially at truck stops when they’re seeing people traveling and they have eyes on the road,” he said.
Brott added that his company, which offers commercial tires and services across the Ohio towns of Canton, Girard, Twinsburg and Alliance, is considering requiring all employees to take TAT’s training to become more familiar with the issue of human trafficking and spark action.
"We’ve got about a hundred employees,” said Brott. “That’s a hundred more sets of eyeballs out there that are educated and if they see something, that training might save a young lady or young man.”
During the presentation, TAT leaders emphasized that human trafficking affects people in all geographic settings and across socioeconomic or cultural strata, noting that over 50 million individuals across the globe are exploited through human trafficking. The team also shared that $236 billion are fed into traffickers’ bank accounts through the exploitation of human beings.
TAT officials said that as traffickers exploit transportation systems to carry out crimes, “these same systems can be a lifeline for survivors.”
The organization said that “of the human trafficking survivors who participated in the National Outreach Survey on Transportation, 81% utilized transportation during their recruitment, 76% used transportation during the course of their exploitation and 52% stated that transportation facilitated their exit or escape.”
The March 24 event marked the organization’s 111th coalition build organized in the country to help equip thousands of people with the tools to identify and report trafficking in their communities. TAT also offers a library of training resources for the trucking, bus and energy industries, a law enforcement training program, a shipping and logistics partners program and a Youth on Transportation (YOT) initiative.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline, which is available 24/7, can be reached by calling 1-800-373-7888 or texting 233733.
About the Author
Aden Graves
Associate editor
Aden Graves is MTD's associate editor. A graduate of Kent State (Ohio) University's award-winning School of Media and Journalism, Graves holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and another bachelor's degree in communication studies.