My colleague, XPO’s Chief Diversity Officer LaQuenta Jacobs, wrote an inspiring piece recently about our work with Truckers Against Trafficking, which helps combat this cruel form of modern-day slavery.

I wanted to add some thoughts to the conversation. While January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, this topic is always timely and critically important to us.

We have a great responsibility to make sure that our team, and our partners that work with us, are doing the right things in the fight against Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.

The challenge is daunting. Modern slavery is regarded as the fastest-growing criminal industry and the International Labor Organization estimates that there are more than 45 million people in slavery today.

The more that professional organizations like XPO can do to prevent these terrible crimes from happening, the better. We’re constantly examining our practices and the practices of our partners to ensure that we are doing our part to uphold a zero-tolerance approach to human trafficking, child labor and forced labor.

A Zero-Tolerance Approach to Modern Slavery: Suppliers, Training, Assessments

At XPO, we apply ourselves diligently to local legislations and are committed to ensuring that our partners feel — and act — the same way as us. We work with accredited partners that have invested time and effort to ensure that preventing modern slavery and human trafficking are high-focus areas.

Regardless of how fast our industry might move and how hectic it can be, we’re only going to work with organizations that demonstrate the same principles that XPO has.

We’ve also approached the problem deliberately and with care, using employee training and self-assessments. 

• In the UK, we comply with the Modern Slavery Act through an extensive e-learning module for all our managers, awareness partnerships and supplier engagement.
• Across Europe, we comply with the French Duty of Vigilance Law, which applies to our headquarters and the operations of the suppliers and subcontractors we work with. We recently conducted a risk assessment and identified the risk of human trafficking within temporary labour agencies and within the supply chains of our work clothing suppliers. 
• In our Human Trafficking Policy, we reiterate our commitment to conducting business in a manner that respects the human rights and dignity of all people.

Encouraging our Colleagues to Speak Up about Modern Slavery

We know that these topics can be scary and difficult to navigate. You are supported at XPO and we encourage anyone with information to share about modern slavery or human trafficking to do so on our ethics hotline, www.xpo.ethicspoint.com.

I’m proud to see our team across Europe embrace these challenges — thank you to all of our team members and partners for their commitment. Together we help make the world a safer place.