Everyone sees the fuel costs and the grocery store costs jumping to levels never seen in this country before, especially when taken together and not due to a natural disaster. We have all experienced shortages due to localized supply chain interruptions from hurricanes, cyberattacks or flooding. This is different.
 
This is not short term; it definitely is not localized. So, what is it that no one is talking about?
 
Well, we know as of the writing of this article that China and more precisely the Chinese leader Xi has a Zero covid policy. The zero covid policy has 400 million people in 46 major metropolitan areas in some form of a lockdown. Some of these lockdowns are extreme enough to have people literally starving in their homes as chain link fences have been erected and armed soldiers patrol the streets.
 
 
Think about this, 400 million people in China are on lockdown, that is more than the entire population of these United States by 25%. Remember our lockdowns? Most states allowed you to move about for necessary items, yes this was unconstitutional and an absolute overreach by all levels of government but nonetheless we maintained the ability to go to the grocery stores, the pharmacy and other stores. In China this is not allowed.
 
So what does this mean for us? Let us just look at the trucking industry vertical in this example.
 
In October 2019 these United States had 3.5 million truck drivers. In 2021 we were short 80,500 truck drivers and in 2022 that is at 90,000 and 97,000 by 2023 as estimated by the government. In 2017 the American Truckers Association stated that by 2030 the industry needed to hire
900,000 drivers to keep up with attrition and demand.
 
The government is estimating 180,000 truckers needed by 2030 and the industry is stating 900,000. So can we just call it 500,000 and split the difference? The issue continues to get worse as the years pass per the trucking industry. Now, this does not take into account increased demands for goods, increases in population or any other factors. Of course, the greatest loss of truckers and thus the greatest need for truckers, is in the long haul or OTR (over the road) class of drivers.