I remember someone posting a week or so back about grocery shelves being more empty lately, or at least that's what I think was posted. I've noticed that also. Seems the grocery stores near me aren't stocked up as much as usual. I assumed it was some sort of trucking issue or supply chain issue, but I haven't heard about any national trucking issue. I just needed to take my car in for repair and they said they need to order parts. They said it used to be a day or two to get the parts and now it could be a week or two. She mentioned something about shortage of truckers.
So I'm wondering what's going on? I haven't heard of any trucking strike/slow down. I doubt the truckers are moving, en mass, to a new profession. Is it the increase in gas prices? I can understand how that would lead to higher prices of goods but not slowdowns in delivery.
Truckers I know say every asset they have is on the road. They can't get enough trucks and drivers to meet demands. Same story at companies we're trying to get products shipped out from. "Not enough trucks". I think we're at max employment or close to it and demand is off the chart, driving up prices and stretching capacity in many areas of the economy. We're seeing the effects in the shipping industry, housing, and shortages in the chip manufacturing are hurting auto, computer and other manufacturing.
As I mentioned in another reply, how might this cause big delays in transit time? The person at the dealership told me what used to take 1 or 2 days to receive (parts) now takes 1 or two weeks. That's a huge increase in time.