Trucker Crisis Hampers Amazon's Holiday Season Aspirations

Amazon.com Inc's AMZN efforts to recruit big-rig contractors to move products across its web of warehouses is struggling with a trucker shortage, Reuters reports.
The e-commerce giant expects a record number of packages this holiday season.
The Amazon Freight Partners (AFP) project aims to enlist independent trucking companies to transport goods between Amazon facilities.
The trucking network puts small AFPs in fierce competition for drivers against Walmart Inc WMT and United Parcel Service Inc UPS.
Labor woes are particularly acute for big-rig trucking firms because their drivers need more credentials, including commercial drivers' licenses, and insurers increasingly demand two years' experience.
Skilled drivers can hop to a new job with better compensation amid record demand for consumer goods.
Amazon sees trucking expense in the form of higher wages, more worker incentives, and inflation to double for the current holiday quarter.
Truckers' pay did not keep pace with inflation, leaving "real" earnings at 70% of what they were in the 1970s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Federal limits on daily working hours, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other hurdles prompted many truck drivers to quit.
Price Action: AMZN shares traded lower by 0.16% at $3,528.94 on the last check Wednesday.

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