How the Federal Mandate on COVID Vaccines May Impact Local Warehousing
Recently, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily stayed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency temporary standard that would require employers to set a mandate for employee COVID-19 vaccination and offer a testing alternative.
According to SupplyChainDive, a news service that covers the logistics industry, supply chain experts and stakeholders have voiced concerns that the mandate could lead to some uncertainty for the logistics industry
As the holiday season begins, warehouses and distribution centers are looking to employ full staff of workers along with additional seasonal workers to keep up with increased demand from the Christmas rush.
Logistics giants like FedEx and Amazon have struggled to staff their facilities with enough workers ahead of a peak season where they will need tens of thousands of seasonal workers to keep operations running smoothly.
This can be for a few reasons, some of the workforce has simply stopped working all together whether it is due to COVID-19 concerns, refusal to take the vaccine under the new mandate or they may have enough money saved from the federal stimulus payments to stay unemployed.
The surge in demand that comes with the peak holiday shipping season is forecasted to ease by January 4, the date by which OSHA is requiring companies with more than 100 employees to enforce its vaccine mandates. This means companies with sizable warehousing and distribution footprints won’t have to enforce the mandate until the busiest time of year is over.
Like other businesses, Hopkins Distribution is working to keep up with the vaccine mandates as they go into effect all while bolstering our workforce to keep up with demand as the holiday season gets underway.
Hopkins Distribution continues to provide public warehousing and contract warehousing in Northern Nevada as a third-party provider through the uncertainty and is still a smart choice for a third-party supply chain management in the Reno-Sparks and Northern Nevada region.
Interested parties can request an estimate online or give us a call us today at (800) 655-3644 to learn more about what Hopkins Distribution has to offer and how we can optimize supply chain’s efficiency for businesses needing efficient logistical solutions.