The Log Book is a weekly rundown of human interest stories related to the transportation industry. This week: the transportation industry supports Truckers Against Trafficking, J.B. Hunt drivers donate school supplies to their kids’ teachers and Mayor Pete gets a bobblehead.
Industry recognizes National Human Trafficking Awareness Day
On Tuesday, the nation came together to recognize National Human Trafficking Awareness Day to bring attention the issue of human trafficking and modern-day slavery that continues to marginalized populations across the globe.
It is estimated that nearly 200,000 trafficking incidents occur within the United States every year with Nevada, Mississippi, Florida and Georgia reporting the highest rates of trafficking per 100,000 in 2021.
One of the most active fighters against human trafficking within transportation is the Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), an organization which helps combat trafficking through educating more than 1.2 million transportation workers a year on the causes of vulnerability to trafficking and measures they can take to find and report possible cases of trafficking.
Current industry sponsors of TAT include Freestyle Transport, the UPS Foundation, Day & Ross, Amazon, Bridgestone, Penske, TravelCenters of America, the American Trucking Associations, C.H. Robinson, J.B Hunt Transport Services, Love’s Travel Stops and XPO Logistics, which announced its continued support of the organization on Tuesday.
“The transportation industry is in a unique position to help prevent modern-day human trafficking through education,” said LaQuenta Jacobs, XPO’s chief diversity officer. “XPO is proud to stand with TAT in raising driver awareness.”
TAT recently announced a new local driver program to help train the growing number of on-demand delivery drivers on the red flags of trafficking and how to report them.
J.B. Hunt drivers adopt a class, donate school supplies
For the 8th consecutive year, J.B. Hunt drivers came together to support the Adopt-A-Class program, giving drivers a chance to nominate their child’s classroom to receive a donation from the asset-based logistics company.
This year, J.B. Hunt received over 200 nominations from drivers, donating more than $43,000 in school supplies, personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies to the schools.
A regional intermodal driver for J.B. Hunt nominated his daughter’s third grade teacher, Mrs. Ruff, to thank her for the extra work during the pandemic, a time that has brought stress to many teachers trying to juggle transitions between in-class teaching, remote learning and hybrid learning environments.
“What I love about her is that she always makes teaching super fun,” said the driver’s daughter. “She really deserves to be recognized.”
Buttigieg enters the National BobbleHead Hall of Fame
On National Bobblehead Day, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee unveiled a bobblehead to honor U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as a part of the Essential Hero Bobblehead Series.
There will be only 2,021 bobbleheads produced to commemorate the year Buttigieg was sworn into the position. It is the first bobblehead to be produced featuring a U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
“We are excited to release the first bobblehead of Pete Buttigieg on National Bobblehead Day,” said Phil Sklar, co-founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. “While he is currently the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, he will always be known as ‘Mayor Pete’ to the people in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana.”
The limited edition bobble heads are already sold out, although the museum is taking pre-orders for a new batch expected to ship in the summer.
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