U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg visits UPS Worldport, talks supply chain

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg toured UPS Worldport's 5.2 million square foot sprawling campus Tuesday and discussed the country's national supply chain ahead of the holiday season.

Buttigieg said it's crucial for the federal Department of Transportation to partner with private companies like UPS and its facilities like Worldport, the largest sorting and logistics facility in America.

"The simple fact about our supply chains is that the majority of them are privately owned and operated. And so there has to be a partnership between public and private in order to make improvements," Buttigieg said. "When we had the worst of the bottlenecks during COVID, we brought private sector leaders to the table, including UPS to talk about what we could do short, medium and long term and take action."

The secretary stopped in Louisville to discuss the progress made in supply chain reliability across America. While the supply chain continues to lack a cushioning of employees and a strained workforce, Buttigieg said he was "confident" initiatives from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Trucking Action Plan can help to recruit, train and retain employees throughout the supply chain, namely at places like UPS.

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In December 2021, the Biden-Harris administration introduced the Trucking Action Plan in an effort to strengthen and grow the U.S. economy. On Tuesday, Buttigieg discussed the importance of jobs such as CDL licensed truck delivery drivers at UPS.

"We have to make sure that trucking is a great career, you have to make sure it's a great career for everybody, including women, or else we're just missing out on 50% of the potential workforce, and trucking can be really great," Buttigieg said.

This year, there were 67,000 more CDLs issued in the first three quarters than last year. At UPS, employees can get paid and be trained to receive a CDL.

"That is the stuff of the American dream," Buttigieg said. "I'm very proud of middle-class careers created."

With Christmas and other holidays around the corner, Buttigieg reflected on how this time last year, major shipping issues were facing Americans. While the holiday shipping crisis of 2021 was mostly avoided, with 99% of packages arriving on time nationally, Buttigieg said, "there's much more work to do."

"You and your colleagues ... were at the table from the very beginning when the President asked us to get ahead of what eventually became headline-grabbing issues in our supply chains last year, and we pulled through thanks to our partnerships," he said.

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He also noted that it was the UPS drivers who stepped up in 2021 to deliver coronavirus vaccines during supply chain delivery issues.

"Now, the important thing to understand is that as presents don't get there on their own, there are thousands, millions of workers behind every step in that supply chain and we're here to support them," Buttigieg said. "And we're here to focus on getting things done to improve the infrastructure those workers count on."

Buttigieg was joined at Worldport Tuesday by Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration Administrator Robin Hutcheson, UPS CEO Carol Tomé, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien for a tour of Worldport. Mayor-elect Craig Greenberg and future congressman Morgan McGarvey were present to hear Buttigieg's address.

Buttigieg helped the Biden administration roll out the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law earlier this year. As of November, Kentucky has received $3.5 billion in funding from the bill for 110 statewide projects, including two projects which will directly impact Louisville. Reimagine 9th Street, a $15.3 million project, aims to transform 9th Street into a more pedestrian-friendly environment and turn Muhammad Ali Boulevard and Chestnut Street into two-way traffic. The other project is a $7.4 million effort with the Transit Authority of River City to buy up to six battery-powered electric buses and the charging infrastructure to maintain them.

Buttigieg is the 19th U.S. Secretary of Transportation and was sworn into office in February 2021. The secretary was previously the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, serving from 2012 to 2020, with a brief leave from office in 2014 when he was deployed to the war in Afghanistan.

Contact reporter Olivia Evans at oevans@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @oliviamevans_

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Pete Buttigieg visits UPS in Louisville to talk supply chain, jobs