Trucking and costs
There is no doubt that the COVID era of the past two years has had a huge effect on the overall supply chain of companies however it could be debated that no area of the supply chain has been more affected than trucking services. Throughout the world there has been lockdowns, testing, isolation, border controls and a whole host of other impediments to the movement of goods via road.

We can now add the cost of fuel to this list as a further imposition to the movement of goods.

Below is a break down into some of the issues around the world with the trucking of goods.

Australia:
In Australia most of the border restrictions have now been lifted which allows the movement of goods via truck, between states, to resume.

Notwithstanding this COVID is still rife within the community and the requirement for any person with COVID to isolate for 7 days is having a detrimental effect on the availability of drivers day to day and as an extension the availability of trucks.

We have heard from multiple sources there is a sever lack of drivers, even without COVID isolation, and on any given day transport companies can be down up to 30% of their required staff. Currently we have managed to work with our partners and clients so as to reduce the overall effect but moving forward we see the issue as a long term one for the industry.

On top of fuel, the Stevedores are continuing to increase charges, the ground handling terminals are increasing charges and the slot systems are increasing charges, all of which has an effect of increasing supply chain costs.

USA:
The USA has suffered from a shortage of truck drivers for years and this is only getting worse.

The last report issued from the US said they had a deficit of close to 50,000 truck drivers throughout the country.

The US has also suffered the increase of fuel prices and fuel surcharges are a standard cost for movements from the US at this point. Add to this the constant port delays and the movement of goods from the US is challenged on a number of fronts.

China:
China is one of the few countries still imposing lockdowns on the population due to COVID 19. There has been lockdowns throughout the country however none having a greater impact than the lockdown of Shanghai.

In relation to trucking this lockdown has meant companies were moving goods, via truck, to other ports which has put further pressure on the availability of trucks and drivers as well as causing congestion at other ports such as Ningbo.

There has been increases in costs for trucking which have been estimated to have tripled since November 2021.

Europe:
Most of Europe is back to business as usual with relation to COVID.

The trucking situation, whilst very constrained, does not appear to be in as critical a situation as other parts of the world.

With all areas of the world we continue to monitor the situations both with costs, congestion, equipment and space availability. We also work with our clients to provide the optimum solution for the movement of your goods.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact one of our team to further explain these issues.