Current Trucking Events a Perfect Supply Chain Storm
For the past year or so, the trucking industry has been on fire (in a good way). Now, like a torrential rain pouring on a blazing wildfire, a series of unfortunate, overlapping events in the current political landscape has the chance to pull the rug from under the current trucking industry.
Port Backup
We have written about this to great length yesterday, but right now ships are backed up at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Even with Biden and Newsom placing executive orders to help alleviate the bottleneck at the docks, trucks are needed to move them from the port to the rest of the nation.
Supply Shortage
Everything from onion rings to prescription containers are in short supply right now, thanks to the point above. The trucking sector is not immune to this problem. The prices of rubber and aluminum, among others, are rising at a rapid pace and trucks are expensive to build. Even the used market, with trucks five years or older, are starting to feel the strain as hungry companies purchase them off the lots.
Vaccine Mandates
The potential vaccine mandates are also putting a strain on the trucking industry. Many truckers are hesitant to get vaccinated from COVID-19, even with Joe Biden proposing to make it a requirement for businesses with 100 employees or greater. With the trucking industry employing over 1.5 million people, even a 1% resignation rate would have devastating effects on shipments across the nation, including at ports.
Conclusion
As you could infer from each individual point, they all contribute to the other ones. The inability to move things out of port is indirectly causing the prices of trucks to rise, which is putting businesses out of the job market, and vaccine mandates that may cause people to resign will only result in a larger backlog along the ports, causing the shortage to intensify.
The good news is that with the ports backed up and supplies in crazy demand from the boats, plus the potential mandates not applying to lower employee count businesses, now is the perfect time to be a small business trucker. Companies are starting to pay more and more to get their goods shipped, potentially even offsetting the premium you would pay for a new or new-to-you truck. If you want in on this action, look no further than TopMark Funding and our soft credit check! Read below for more information.
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