President Biden discusses holiday gridlock with FedEx and UPS CEOs

US President Joe Biden has addressed transportation bottlenecks ahead of the logistics industry’s busiest time of year, announcing in a video posted to Twitter that he had spoken to several chief executives of large companies including FedEx and UPS.

The government has been looking for a solution to nationwide supply chain disruption due to a surge in demand as the economy rebounds post-lockdown.

In September, a record number of container ships were stuck outside California ports that did not have the capacity to deal with the influx, while truck driver and factory worker shortages exacerbated the situation.

This has led to higher prices for scarce consumer goods.

Credit: Peter Bond

In the short video, Biden pledged that customers would be able to buy the products and gifts they wanted for the festive season.

The administration earlier revealed plans to ease port congestion by working with port authorities and carriers to extend operational hours, allowing grant money to be used to set up temporary container storage yards, and pledging that the first round of grants from Biden’s new infrastructure bill would be opened in the next few months.

Neither FedEx nor UPS commented on the specifics of their discussions.

Source: Reuters, Bloomberg

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