USA Today investigation into trucking industry wins Hillman Prize

Brett Murphy

A USA Today investigation on abuses in the port trucking industry has one a Hillman Prize for journalism in service to the common good.

The investigation “Rigged: Forced Into Debt. Worked Past Exhaustion. Left With Nothing” was written and reported by Brett Murphy.

The reporting led to internal audits by six major retailers including Target, Home Depot and Walmart to ferret out abusive port trucking companies in their supply chain and the introduction of federal, state and local legislation to improve safety conditions for port truckers.

The prizes recognize journalists who serve the public interest.

The Hillman Prizes are open to journalists and subjects globally for any work widely accessible to a U.S. audience. Winners will be awarded a $5,000 prize at the Hillman Foundation’s annual ceremony in New York City on May 8.

All of the winners can be found here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.