Labor negotiations between dockworkers and employers are at a standstill because of a fight between two unions over who maintains equipment at a terminal at the Port of Seattle.

A new survey shows wages for truck drivers rose at a double-digit pace last year, as companies raced to recruit workers in a market marked by tight labor conditions and high freight demand.

The people on the warehouse floor, the folks who pick and pack your orders, and the men and women who drive the trucks that make your deliveries all know the problems that are making your business less efficient than it could be. You should encourage them to tell you.

While it may seem that the solution to the truck driver shortage is simply to recruit more drivers, this overly simplified tactic may be contributing to the problem. 

Suzanne Offerman, senior marketing manager for Onesource Global Trade at Thomson Reuters, describes the technology needed to avoid forced labor in manufacturing supply chains.

The U.S. added 528,000 jobs in July as the jobs market returned to pre-pandemic levels, adding a total of 22 million jobs since reaching a low in April 2020.

For U.S. importers, the hurdles for proving that their supply chains are free of forced labor are getting higher all the time.

Although momentum is building to automate and digitize freight processes, the logistics industry’s transition to digital tools and automation has lagged behind other sectors.

California’s Port of Oakland has fully resumed operations after truckers protesting a gig-work law blocked access for five days and disrupted the flow of goods at the key shipping hub.

The pandemic has put unprecedented strain on global supply chains— and also on the workers who’ve kept those systems running under tough conditions. It looks like many of them have had enough.