Benzinga | Dec 9, 2021 09:37PM EST

Trucker Crisis Hampers Amazon's Holiday Season Aspirations

* Amazon.com Inc's (NASDAQ:AMZN) efforts to recruit big-rig contractors to move products across its web of warehouses is struggling with a trucker shortage, Reuters reports.

* The e-commerce giant expects a record number of packages this holiday season.

* The Amazon Freight Partners (AFP) project aims to enlist independent trucking companies to transport goods between Amazon facilities.

* The trucking network puts small AFPs in fierce competition for drivers against Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) and United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE: UPS).

* Labor woes are particularly acute for big-rig trucking firms because their drivers need more credentials, including commercial drivers' licenses, and insurers increasingly demand two years' experience.

* Skilled drivers can hop to a new job with better compensation amid record demand for consumer goods.

* Amazon sees trucking expense in the form of higher wages, more worker incentives, and inflation to double for the current holiday quarter.

* Truckers' pay did not keep pace with inflation, leaving "real" earnings at 70% of what they were in the 1970s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

* Federal limits on daily working hours, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other hurdles prompted many truck drivers to quit.

* Price Action: AMZN shares traded lower by 0.16% at $3,528.94 on the last check Wednesday.