It's a knock-on effect from lockdowns. Governments got it in their heads that they could partition the economy into "essential" and "non-essential" and could make massive interventions without any side effects. So everyone has to work from home, not go to restaurants anymore, port rules are constantly changing in ways that screw over shipping firms, the economy tanks, everything including logistics is thrown into chaos. Meanwhile people who are ideologically blind to the costs of government intervention sit around and say "why now?! what's happened to cause this?", ignoring the ocean-sized elephant in the room.

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/cave-man-capitalism

Trucking is not an easy job. The working conditions are poor, you have to pay a fair amount of any benefits out of pocket, and like most "gig" economy stuff the logistics companies are driving a relentless rate towards the bottom.

According to the American Trucking Association, turnover rates for drivers have been at about 90% for a decade. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/05/25/999784202/is-t...

I would assume that the tight job market is making things worse.