JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Supply Chain Task Force met for the first time Thursday morning to find solutions to supply challenges that businesses are facing.
The United States is currently in a historic supply chain shortage. The task force heard four presentations during Thursday’s meeting: draft freight multimodal network, workforce in crisis, crisis response and emergency response. For businesses across the state, top challenges they face right now are supply chain and staffing shortages.
Missouri Department of Transportation Director and Task Force Co-Chair Patrick McKenna said the goal of the task force is to look into problems and see if policy or plans can change to better support the global supply chain.
“To relieve those bottlenecks, if you will, to have a multimodal network that citizens expect,” McKenna said. “Missouri’s pivotal location in the country makes us the perfect place to be studying this issue.”
Gov. Mike Parson created the task force through an executive order signed in late November 2021. The task force will look into rail, freight, air and marine transportation solutions. The task force is co-chaired by McKenna and Director of the Office of Workforce Development Mardy Leathers.
The task force has the following members:
- Chris Gutierrez, president, Kansas City SmartPort, Inc.
- Mary Lamie, executive vice president, Multi Modal Enterprises, Bi-State Development
- Caitlin Murphy, founder and CEO, Global Gateway Logistics;
- Dustin Quesenberry, vice president of operations, Contract Freights, Inc.
- Todd Spencer, president, OOIDA
“There’s a lot of small things that I think we need to bring to the industry,” Quesenberry said. “To bring new talent and skill in will be really important.”
The Missouri Supply Chain Task Force met for the first time Thursday morning after Gov. Mike Parson created the task force through an executive order signed in late November 2021.
“There is no one easy fix,” Spencer said. “It’s gonna take a lot of little things, but it is going to take things to actually happen, to change, to improve, to become more efficient and to make this thing work because we will get back to normal and in some ways, it’s going to be a new normal. I hope in lots of ways it’s going to be a better normal.”
Bratchers Market in Moberly is one of those businesses that relies on the efficient transportation of goods.
Owner Jim Bratcher said the market hasn’t faced too many challenges when it comes to late deliveries through Associated Wholesale Grocers or local vendors. Bratcher does say though, that the market has had issues with product shortages.
“The hardest part is knowing people are frustrated and disappointed that you don’t have the items that they want,” Bratcher said. “They often have questions about ‘When is it going to get better?’ and I really don’t have answers for them at this point.”
Bratcher said he’s not sure how the state can help, but he’s happy something is being done.
“There are a lot of issues that really aren’t statewide like the trucking industry, the vaccine mandates and port closures and all of the things that are happening globally and throughout the country that I don’t know how much the state can affect that,” Bratcher said.
There is no set date for the next task force meeting. MoDOT does say that future meetings will be held in different cities across the state to promote statewide participation.
