WACO, Texas — The COVID-19 pandemic sparked the supply chain issues two year ago and we're still seeing many repercussions from it today.
Some blame products being held up at ports and in the transportation system, others point the blame on labor issues.
Nicole Katsikides, a research scientist at Texas A&M Transportation Institute, says freight transportation isn't the sole problem of the supply chain issues but it's not helping either.
"Unfortunately, the supply chain is extremely intricate and there's lots of pieces tied together," she said. "It's like a major intricate domino system."
When one part fails, there's a giant ripple effect. Katsikides says supply chains can also be hindered when there are major changes in business plans, too.
"Even transitioning from traditional models that businesses have to the new models is changing and can add to the cost and delays," she explained.
Katsikides says the way we now consume or buy products has put a heavy demand on delivery carriers.
"A lot of us are now using e-commerce or delivery," she said. "We're not really going to the store so that has changed the way supply chains are set up. That reactive activity has created a change in the ability to get products where they need to be, so that is also contributing to the problems."
U.S. highways have more trucks on them now more than ever and it's causing quite the congestion even right here in Central Texas.
"The corridor on I-35 is critically important to not just Texas, but national supply chains," Katsikides said.
Waco, Texas is putting some pressure on truckers and is causing some delays in transportation.
A Federal Highway Administration report from 2020 shows the path through Waco is the slowest in the state and is number 18 out of the entire country. Waco is not on the lists for 2018 and 2019 for top 100 freight bottlenecks.
You can see previous rankings here:
Katsikides, who is heavily involved in making the reports about bottlenecks in freight, expects Waco to be in the top 10 in the 2021 report which hasn't come out yet.