ICYMI: In Louisville, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg Highlights Supply Chain Progress That Will Deliver the Holidays “On Time”

Secretary Buttigieg’s visit to UPS Worldport Air Hub highlights progress made to strengthen supply chains, speed shipping operations, and lower prices for consumers.

Louisville, KY — This week, amid the busy holiday shipping season, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to visit UPS’s Worldport Air Hub — one of the nation’s busiest cargo hubs and the world’s largest automated package sorting hub. His visit highlighted improved supply chain reliability thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s actions over the past year and a half, in partnership with the private sector, and he thanked the American workers who are essential to keeping our supply chain moving.

Congressman-elect Morgan McGarvey, Louisville Mayor-elect Craig Greenberg, KY DOT Secretary Jim Gray, International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, UPS CEO Carol Tomé, Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration Administrator Robin Hutcheson, and other local leaders and workers joined the Secretary for the event at Worldport.

In his remarks, the Secretary thanked the truck drivers and other transportation workers without whom the holidays would not be possible. These are good-paying jobs that give workers of all backgrounds a path to the middle class and a chance to grow their career, emphasized Secretary Buttigieg.

The Secretary also had the opportunity to tour the facility and join a UPS driver for a ride and chat about how truckers keep our supply chains moving.

In his remarks the Secretary announced that the Department is on track to dramatically increase the number of commercial driver’s licenses this year — just in the first three quarters of this year, U.S. DOT has issued over 67,000 more commercial driver’s licenses than last year. The increase comes after the administration published its Trucking Action Plan last December to support and grow the nation’s trucking workforce — and our economy in the process. Read more about the Trucking Action Plan HERE.

The president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is also creating job opportunities in the trucking industry as well as improving working conditions and safety thanks to new investments in truck parking, CDL programs, new efforts to recruit more women in the trucking industry, and more.

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Louisville Courier Journal: U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg visits UPS Worldport, talks supply chain

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.”

WEKU Louisville Public Media: Buttigieg talks supply chain improvements in visit to UPS Worldport

Buttigieg said transit across the Pacific Ocean has improved, with lower shipping costs and fewer backed-up ships than a year ago.

“Some of the Pacific Ocean shipping rates are down 80%, which ought to help lower prices that Americans are seeing at the store in a moment where we’re fighting inflation with everything that we’ve got,” Buttigieg said.

Louisville Business First: US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visits UPS Worldport

WAVE NBC News Louisville: Transportation Secretary Buttigieg visits UPS Worldport

“Even something that’s coming that’s coming from halfway around the world and going from the east or west coast might fly over people’s heads here to Louisville and get sorted out and then get on its way,” Buttigieg said. “Seeing that come together is like watching a great orchestra at work.”

WHAS 840 Radio: U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Visits Louisville, UPS

WHAS ABC News Louisville: ‘Great visions in places like Louisville’: US Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg visits UPS Worldport

“The pandemic created some of the hardest years for transportation in decades. How far we’ve come, even in just the past year,” Buttigieg said. “From medical supplies to toys and everything in between, things of great importance and great meaning move in your hands to the places and the people they’re meant to reach.”

WLKY CBS News Louisville: US Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg visits UPS Worldport in Louisville

Julie Mason Sirius XM: Sec Buttigieg on Inflation and Shipping