PUBLISHER: The Load Star (www.theloadstar.com)
Australia’s Omicron wave has skyrocketed staff shortages in container logistics, putting the sector under “enormous strain”.
This week, local media reported bare supermarket shelves across the country, due to “up to half” of all truck drivers being absent from work, thanks to either a positive test result or isolation rules.
Industry sources say the country’s testing rules, combined with a lack of test kits for transport workers, is at the root of the disruption to supply chains.
According to Michael Kaine, national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, drivers are “delivering rapid tests to be sold on the shelves of supermarkets and pharmacies — but they, like most Australians, can’t access them themselves”.
On Wednesday, the government scrapped its seven-day rolling test rule for truck drivers, in a bid to alleviate the capacity shortage.