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FLOW

Freight Logistics Optimization Works

Pete Buttigieg and Celeste Drake
US Department of Transportation, 2023
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The pandemic emphasized the need for better ways to identify supply chain problems before they pile up catastrophically. In this video-taped update from the US Department of Transportation (DOT), Pete Buttigieg, US Secretary of Transportation, and Celeste Drake, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, present a progress report on the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) initiative. In this digital infrastructure project, supply chain participants share data to address their mutual challenges. The speakers make a compelling case for FLOW’s progress in its efforts to improve US supply chains’ affordability, reliability and resilience.

Summary

The Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) Initiative is a collaboration between the public and private sectors to address supply chain challenges through data sharing.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed supply chains to their limits. In the United States, ships were left stranded at sea – sometimes more than 100 waited for berths at ports, so they could deliver their cargo. Goods themselves were stuck in warehouses far from their intended destinations, pushing many small businesses to the brink of financial failure and putting consumers’ health and happiness at risk. 

The US Department of Transportation was proactive in addressing these problems, first, by boosting America’s physical infrastructure – its ports, roads, railroads and bridges. It also helped increase the number of truckers delivering goods and created temporary container yards...

About the Speakers

Pete Buttigieg is the US Secretary of Transportation, and Celeste Drake is Deputy Director of the US National Economic Council.

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