Guest: Ray Haight of JLE Industries on pending legislation to support truckers; A new supply chain research center is established; Best Buy's supply chain innovations

Our guest on this week's episode is Ray Haight, executive performance impact coach at JLE Industries. He talks about the problems recruiting and retaining truck drivers and two new pieces of proposed legislation in Washington that will make life on the road better and possibly make driving a truck more attractive to prospective drivers. They include a bill requiring facilities to open restrooms to drivers and also a bill to create more safe places for truckers to park overnight.

We all know that supply Chains have been challenged the past two years and now the federal government is offering support and funding for new research into making them better. As part of a multi-University project, a new Center for Freight Transportation for Efficient and Resilient Supply Chain has been established within the University of Tennessee’s Center for Transportation Research. We report on what it hopes to accomplish.

Like all retailers, Best Buy was forced to pivot normal operations when the pandemic began. At last week's RILA Link conference in Orlando, two Best Buy executives shared what worked and what didn't as the company experimented with new models to reach and service customers. Some of those changes have improved their supply chains in ways that may not have happened if they were not forced to  innovate during the pandemic.

DC Velocity's sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly  offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane.  It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. The third season of eight episodes has fully launched  and focuses on attracting and retaining labor in our supply chains.  Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe.


Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

• JLE Industries
• UT Knoxville to lead multi-institutional research on freight transportation supply chains.
• RILA show: Best Buy learns from pandemic experiments
• Visit DCVelocity.com for the latest news. 
• Visit Supply Chain Quarterly
• Listen to CSCMP and Supply Chain Quarterly's Supply Chain in the Fast Lane podcast
• Listen to Supply Chain Quarterly's Top 10 Supply Chain Threats podcast
• Send feedback about this podcast to [e-mail].

Podcast is sponsored by:  Yale

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