Officials in the U.S. Look to Solve Supply Chain Problems

United States officials are now looking at ways to potentially help relieve the country of the massive supply chain problems that are affecting business both in the United States and worldwide. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, along with California and U.S. officials, recently came together for a virtual roundtable to attempt to understand the best way to deal with these supply chain issues. 

California has two of the largest ports in the nation (Los Angeles and Long Beach). About 40% of all containerized freight that flows throughout the United States either arrives or departs through these California ports. As a result of the global supply chain demand and current problems, these ports have really struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, and especially in the last few months. 

Congestion at these ports is one of the reasons why the global supply chain has experienced issues. These problems have affected businesses nationwide, as well as worldwide. Businesses have experienced very long shipping delays, and some companies have experienced inventory loss from time to time as a result. 

Supply chain issues have plagued the world since the COVID-19 pandemic first started. Back in February of 2021, President Joe Biden actually issued an executive order that was supposed to help relieve the stress and issues the supply chain faced. However, it does appear more is needed. 

That is the goal of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other U.S. officials. As the United States looks into solving these supply chain problems, we could see big changes on this front. The United States recently okayed a bill that would allow for more semiconductor chips to be manufactured in the United States, mainly because the current chip shortage has affected the auto industry negatively, as well as forced the price of cars to surge. These new factories which have been ordered to be built will more than likely bring in a lot of new jobs in various parts of the nation.

While nothing is known about what Buttigieg and other U.S. officials have in mind when it comes to the global supply chain, there is a push for more truck drivers to be hired in the near future. Currently, driver turnover rates for large long-haul carriers are over 90%. This has forced major supply chain problems and disruptions.

On average, stats show that there needs to be about 110,000 new drivers hired per year to get 1.1 million new drivers in the United States over the decade. This is just to keep up with the growing transportation needs, as well as future retirements in the field.

The supply chain is definitely suffering in all places, including in the United States. If these jobs are not filled or found, the supply chain could continue to suffer. Globally, many believe that these supply chain issues will eventually even out, though probably not until 2022 at the very earliest. Most analysts forecast that they would even out until 2023. But as there are now new concerns over the Delta COVID-19 variant, the global supply chain may continue to be backlogged for months or years to come, especially if no major solution is sought out.