The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) shared the latest Transportation Supply Chain Indicators Tracker early this month.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the DOT has seen stressed supply chains, as historic levels of goods coming into the U.S., aging infrastructure, the pandemic, and geopolitical disruptions continue to cause bottlenecks, congestion, and challenges in global markets.
Despite challenges, there are signs of progress in the U.S. goods movement chain. U.S. ports — including the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach collectively — imported more containers than any previous January. The total number of containerships waiting for berths at U.S. ports has dropped by 35% since peaking in early February and freight railroads’ weekly intermodal movements in March approached their highest levels of 2022. Goods are successfully being delivered to shelves and real retail inventories excluding autos are at their highest levels in history and 6% above pre-pandemic levels, the DOT said.
This progress builds on continued action by DOT and the administration’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force to move ports toward 24/7 operations, improve recruitment and retention in the trucking workforce, and speed the movement of goods by rail and other modes.
Earlier this month, DOT announced a data sharing effort called Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW). FLOW has initial participants including Target, FedEx, UPS, True Value, ocean shippers and ports, that represent diverse perspectives across the supply chain. This effort will foster an information exchange to ease supply chain congestion, speed up the movement of goods, and ultimately cut costs for U.S. consumers. In February, DOT announced the availability of $450 million in funds for U.S. ports, and published a comprehensive report with recommendations for the future of U.S. supply chains.
The DOT still see challenges on the horizon and continues to monitor potential disruptions. Covid-19 outbreaks across Asia and Russia’s war of aggression could impact supply chains in the U.S. DOT continues to work with partner agencies and stakeholders from industry and labor to help speed up the movement of goods, and ultimately make goods more affordable for U.S. people.
BACKGROUND ON THE TRACKER
Over the course of the past year, as part of the president’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force (Task Force), DOT and the departments of Commerce and Agriculture, have been part of an nationwide effort to improve the flow of goods, make supply chains more resilient, and lower prices for Americans.
Freight and logistics supply chains are largely operated by the private sector. To support greater transparency about the state of U.S. transportation supply chains, last fall, the Task Force released a dashboard tracking real-time challenges and progress across four key metrics. DOT is continuing to track those four metrics and others to help depict a more complete picture of the current logistics and transportation state-of-play. The DOT’s Transportation Supply Chain Indicators Tracker (Tracker) provides updates on key supply chain data — including measures and indicators of intermodal throughput such as volumes of U.S. imports and exports, transportation labor numbers, the number of containerships anchored and loitering near U.S. ports, and more.
The Tracker is a collaboration across many departments participating in the Task Force and is intended to provide information about critical supply chains to the public. It will be updated over time, including additions and adjustments as data and information are refined. DOT and other members of the Task Force are working closely with private companies and public agencies to address supply chain disruptions and improve the movement of goods across the country.
The following measures are provided in this update:
- U.S. container imports & exports at ports, overall
- U.S. container imports, at major…
Read More: DOT supply chain tracker shows progress