The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has listened to leaders from across the freight industry in a hearing titled “Industry and Labor Perspectives: A Further Look at North American Supply Chain Challenges.” It truly laid bare some of the hard truths of today’s supply chain nightmares.

House Transportation Committee: Bottlenecks and Backlogs in the U.S. Economy

Opening the hearing was Committee Chair Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon. He detailed some of the unprecedented bottlenecks and backlogs of the U.S. economy facing in 2021. There is a $100 billion trade deficit with the rest of the world. It is something DeFazio has precisely mentioned. In fact, ocean shipping costs have jumped 500%. Also, prices on consumer goods have skyrocketed 50% year over year.

House Transportation Committee: Detention Time

In fact, DeFazio also pointed to detention time as the main driver of the crisis at the ports. Moreover, after arriving at a port, “five or six hours later, maybe you are loaded, maybe you are out of duty time,” said DeFazio. Thus, he has put himself in a driver’s shoes. “In fact, this externalizing. Truck drivers are really bearing the brunt of the cost. In fact, we are getting some of the important statistics: The DOT is saying truck drivers have lost between $1 billion and $1.3 billion in earnings because of the detention time.”

It is really an inefficient system, he did add.

Committee, Panel of Speakers

The committee and panel of speakers have widely agreed on that point. Moreover, the participants have also widely praised the brand-new $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. It is included $110 billion for roads and bridges and $17 billion for ports.

Real Action to Help Supply Chains

The executive director of the Port of Long Beach, Mario Cordero, has called the $17 billion “real action to make supply chains, in fact, more resilient” and thus explained that his port, and others across the country.

Mario Cordero, the executive director of the Port of Long Beach, called the $17 billion “real action to make supply chains more resilient” and explained that his port and others across the country would use the money to create more space to stack and store containers without congesting the ports. On October 13, Cordero, who accompanied President Joe Biden, called for ports to shift to 24/7 operations. He was virtually alone in expressing hope. In fact, it could expand port hours that would translate to real-world progress.