Last week, state Attorney General Ashley Moody called on more Floridians in the fight to end human trafficking.
On Thursday, Moody announced in Sarasota County that all of PGT Innovations will receive anti-human trafficking training through the Highway Heroes campaign. PGT Innovations is the largest private-sector employer in Sarasota County and enlisting the company in the campaign will add more Truckers Against Trafficking certified commercial driver license holders on Florida roadways.
Highway Heroes is a multifaceted outreach campaign including specialized training, awareness materials mailed directly to CDL holders and a website with resources to educate drivers how to identify victims and report suspected human trafficking. The campaign started in October 2020 through a partnership between the Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
“I am thrilled to announce the expansion of our Highway Heroes campaign. Providing anti-human trafficking materials and training to the PGT Innovations team brings us one step closer to our goal of ensuring every CDL holder in Florida knows the signs and ways to report human trafficking. I am so grateful to everyone at PGT for signing onto this noble cause and helping our state in the fight to end this horrific crime,” Moody said.
PGT Innovations President and CEO Jeff Jackson also weighed in on the new training.
“We’re honored to partner with Attorney General Moody’s office in support of their Highway Heroes program. Our PGT Innovations fleet is one of the largest in Florida, and our drivers travel over 1.8 million miles per year across the entire state to deliver our products. The Highway Heroes training will provide invaluable skills for our drivers to identify and report the signs of human trafficking. In addition, we will be including this training as part of our new hire orientation for all new employees joining our PGTI family. Our team members are incredibly proud to do our part to combat these terrible crimes and save lives,” Jackson said.
PGT Innovations is a leading national supplier of premium windows and doors, with four manufacturing locations in Florida employing more than 4,000 team members. The company employs its own team of CDL-certified truck drivers to deliver products, and through the Highway Heroes campaign, PGT Innovations pledges to train 100% of the drivers in their fleet to identify and report human trafficking.
In October 2020, Moody and FLHSMV launched the Highway Heroes campaign, with the goal of enlisting more commercial truck drivers in the fight to end human trafficking.
Three months later, General Moody and FLHSMV shifted the campaign into high gear ahead of Super Bowl LV in Tampa. As the National Football League‘s championship game approached, a strategic multimedia outreach effort targeting the half a million CDL holders in Florida was underway—sending digital messages directly to drivers, encouraging participation in training on learning to spot, report and end human trafficking. Through the efforts of this campaign, nearly 4,000 truck drivers from Florida are now TAT certified.
Highway Heroes is just one of the many anti-human trafficking initiatives spearheaded by Moody as chair of the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking. The council consists of 15 members from law enforcement, prosecutors, legislators and experts in the health, education and social services fields who work to build on existing state and local partnerships to combat human trafficking.
