The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) said Friday that the Transportation Supply Chain Indicators Tracker indicated signs of progress in easing movement, even though the supply chain remains stressed.
Ports, including the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, are importing more containers than any previous January. The total number of containers waiting for berths has dropped by 35 percent, the department said, and freight railroads’ weekly intermodal movements in March approached their highest levels of 2022. Retail inventories, excluding autos, are at their highest levels in history and are 6 percent about pre-pandemic levels, the department said.
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen stressed supply chains, as historic levels of goods coming into the U.S., aging infrastructure, the pandemic, and geopolitical disruptions continue to cause bottlenecks, congestion, and challenges in global markets,” the department said. “This progress builds on continued action by USDOT and the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force to move ports toward 24/7 operations, improve recruitment and retention in the trucking workforce, and speed the movement of goods by rail and other modes.”
Using a data-sharing effort called Freight Logistics Optimization Works, or FLOW, the USDOT was able to work with partner organizations like Target, FedEx, UPS, True Value, ocean shippers, and ports to get a diverse perspective across the supply chain.
However, the department said trucking capacity is the remaining bottleneck. Declines in employment prior to the pandemic have further stressed the trucking industry as it tackles a historic demand for goods. The US DOT and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) said they were working through the Biden-Harris Trucking Action Plan to retain drivers and recruit more drivers into the profession. Since launching the program, more than 90 employers have started Registered Apprenticeship programs, 112 percent more commercial driver’s licenses have been issued in January and February 2022 than in 2021, a new Women of Trucking Advisory Board was established, and a Veterans Trucking Task Force was started to move more veterans into the trucking industry. Trucking employment is now about 30,000 higher than it was during the start of the pandemic.
The department said potential disruptions from COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could impact the supply chain in the United States in the future.