I understand how they got delayed initially, but what factors have prevented things from rebounding? For instance, I work in the medical field an am being told some product is “backordered” multiple times a week. Besides inventing a time machine, what concrete things are preventing a return to 2019 supplys?
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There are plenty of companies in the supply chain that didn’t survive the pandemic, and folded completely. Leaving everyone else to pick up their work as well as their already established contracts.
Passenger transport has had the same issues. I run a bus company that does school work mostly. Excursions, sports, camps, etc.
Other companies lost drivers to health concerns over the pandemic, retirement, or younger staff needing full time work to support their families, while there was no work for schools or groups during the lockdowns and the year following.
This caused some companies to close completely, and most of the rest left standing, to have a shortage of drivers. A few might have come back once work got going again – especially the older drivers nearing retirement, but those who needed financial stability didn’t return.
In my case, I had enough work to keep one full-timer and one casual employed throughout the pandemic – from a total workforce of 6. I went from 13 operating vehicles, to 5. I cannot get new drivers. I put one guy on, who did two shifts, and changed his mind.
I am constantly turning down jobs because we are already fully booked, and I have to look after my regular customers first. I’ve had calls from schools with kids waiting on the side of the road for a bus they booked with another company weeks ago, who have either failed to turn up, or called and told them they couldn’t do the job anymore.
It’s the same for the freight companies. The same, if not more, work to be done, and not enough resources to go around.
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