The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) today announced the full list of recipients for the Department’s annual Combating Human Trafficking in Transportation Impact Award as part of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
This award incentivizes innovative and shareable solutions to combat human trafficking in the transportation industry. The winners of the 2025 DOT Combating Human Trafficking in Transportation Impact Award include:
- 1st Place: New Jersey Transit for its “NJ TRANSIT’s Continued Commitment to Combatting Human Trafficking: A Multi-Faceted Approach” proposal to prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup by expanding partnerships, training 12,000 employees, launching a public awareness campaign for its 225 million annual passengers, and providing direct support to potentially trafficked individuals.
- 2nd Place: The Cheyenne and Arapaho Department of Transportation’s Transportation Safety Program for its “Safe Roads, Save Lives: Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Campaign Against Human Trafficking in Transportation” proposal to develop training, toolkits, survivor support resources, and an awareness campaign tailored for tribal transportation stakeholders, law enforcement, and travelers through roadway billboards and public transit buses in Oklahoma.
- 3rd Place: 3Strands Global Foundation for its “Railway Agents Combating Exploitation Program” proposal to train and raise awareness of human trafficking among 7,000 railway professionals across the state of California.
DOT’s Transportation Leaders Against Human Trafficking (TLAHT) initiative, with over 600 transportation and travel industry partners, continues to maximize its collective impact in combating human trafficking across all modes of transportation in every state. Transportation-related organizations can join the multimodal, nationwide effort by:
- Signing the TLAHT pledge,
- Accessing mode-specific counter-trafficking resources,
- Developing comprehensive programs and policies,
- Training their employees, and
- Raising awareness about human trafficking and its intersection with transportation.
Additionally, the joint DOT and Department of Homeland Security Blue Lightning Initiative (BLI) trains aviation industry personnel to identify potential traffickers and human trafficking victims, and to report their suspicions to Federal law enforcement through in-flight and on-the-ground reporting methods. To date, over 150 aviation industry partners have trained more than 400,000 employees through BLI.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s “Your Roads, Their Freedom” public awareness campaign educates the commercial motor vehicle industry on recognizing and reporting suspected instances of human trafficking. The campaign includes indicator cards for frontline workers and posters to be displayed in rest areas, travel centers, bus stations, and other places where human trafficking may occur.