TMAF Interviews Wayne Ponschke, a Driver Dedicated to Educating Others on the Human Trafficking Crisis
For the past 37 years, Wayne Ponschke has been a professional truck driver with UPS, working as a driver in many different roles across the company, but for the past 18 years now, he has been working as a driver in the feeder division. Throughout his career at UPS, Wayne has accumulated over 2 million accident-free miles.
Wayne first learned about Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) in early 2019 at the recommendation of a friend who encouraged him to watch the TAT training video. Wayne was immediately moved by the video and the personal stories of survivors of human trafficking, and felt a strong call to action to support the cause.
Recalling the first time he watched the video, Wayne became choked up during his interview with TMAF. He told TMAF that the video changed his mindset completely. “It changed everything for me.”
After becoming TAT-certified, Wayne wanted to get involved in TAT to support the cause and help raise awareness of the organization and it’s work.
“Once I’ve watched the video, I had to do more. I had to share it. I had to get other people involved in what TAT is doing because what they’re doing is incredible.”
Wayne, along with another UPS driver and friend, Ryan Ybarra, joined together to help educate their fellow UPSers about TAT in states across the country, including their home state of California, as well as in Illinois, Arizona and others. Collectively across these states, they were able to get around 450 UPS drivers TAT-certified in just one month.
Speaking about his efforts, Wayne said, “Recruiting and helping educate and raise awareness is a huge part of what we’re doing.”
One of the ways that Wayne helps spread the message of TAT is to by transporting TAT’s educational trailer, the Freedom Drivers Project (FDP), to widely attended UPS rodeo events. By putting the trailer on display, “It brings more attention to what’s going on out there,” Wayne explained.
Another way that Wayne helps educate other drivers is when he is out on the road. Wayne always carries TAT’s informational wallet cards on him to help spread the word more broadly among his fellow truck drivers. When he makes a stop, he hands the cards out and leaves them at areas that other truck drivers frequent, like rest areas.
As Wayne reflects back on the progress he has made over the past few years, he said, “It just took one guy to tell me to watch a video.” One by one, Wayne is helping to make a difference, and his work has only just begun: “We’re going to continue to get people certified, continue to get the information out.”
