Each year, TAT’s (Truckers Against Trafficking) most prestigious award – the Harriet Tubman Award presented by WEX– which includes a $5,000 check and a trophy, are given to honor a member of the trucking, bus or energy industry whose direct actions have either helped save or improve the lives of those exploited or prevented human trafficking from taking place.

Do you know someone who deserves to win this award? If so, check out the nomination process for the award now. TAT is accepting nominations through Aug. 15. The incident must have taken place in the U.S. or Canada, and nominees need to reside in one of those countries.

TAT created the award in 2013 and named it to honor famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman, whose courageous personal actions resulted in the transportation of 70 slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad and whose overall role in the freedom movement was instrumental in the freeing of thousands more. Born into slavery in 1820, Miss Tubman was the first African American woman buried with full military honors and the first to have the inaugural Liberty ship named after her – the SS Harriet Tubman – by the U.S. Maritime Commission.

The Harriet Tubman Award was presented for the first time the following year to a travel plaza general manager in Washington. Since that time, winners have included truck drivers, other travel plaza employees and bus employees. 

In 2023, Joe Aguayo, a truck driver for WinCo Foods, received the Harriet Tubman Award. His company began rolling out TAT training in 2022. Later that year, after seeing a woman with a shaved head, clad only in a towel, standing along a remote stretch of mountainous highway, Aguayo made a call alerting police. His call resulted in the recovery of a trafficking victim. Law enforcement reported this to be the second Indigenous human trafficking victim found naked in this area, and they believe the remote location, coupled with limited access to cell service, has made the area a dumping ground for perpetrators. The trooper told Aguayo that he likely saved the woman’s life.

Past winners have included convenience store/truck stop employees, truck drivers, motorcoach and transit drivers. To read the stories of past winners, click here. 

“Please, share your story if you’ve taken any action to help someone you think might be a trafficking victim or a potential trafficking victim,” said Laura Cyrus, TAT senior director of Industry Training and Outreach, “even if you’re not sure what you did is ‘award worthy.’ The stories of our Harriet Tubman Award winners are important, as are other cases we hear about and retell in our TAT in Action reports. These stories serve to encourage others in the industry to stay vigilant around this effort.”