Government Shutdown's Impact on US Logistics & Transportation System

This essay explores the impact of government shutdowns on the US transportation system, highlighting disruptions in truckload border crossings, air and ocean imports, domestic freight, and air travel. It details how government shutdowns lead to delays, security concerns, and financial losses for transportation companies and travelers. The analysis draws on various sources to illustrate the consequences, including potential impacts on tax refunds, project approvals for transit agencies, and airline revenues. The essay concludes that government shutdowns significantly affect the efficiency and reliability of the US transportation network, emphasizing the need for strategic planning to mitigate these disruptions.

Logistics and Supply chain management
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Abstract
The aim of the paper is to cover the topic is how government shutdown can affect transportation
system in the US market that is considered as one of essential segments. This includes the
evidences related to the affect that is faced in different transportation system in the market due to
the shutdown of the government working.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................4
Truckload border crossings..........................................................................................................4
Air and Ocean Imports.................................................................................................................6
U.S. Domestic Truckload/Intermodal Freight.............................................................................6
Air travellers................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The purpose of the paper is to understand the topic that is how government shutdown can affect
the transportation system. The logistics management is considered as one of the integral part of
supply chain management as it include the planning, implementation and control of the efficient
and effective manner. Transportation is essential for the operations of the business as this the
only way through which they can make the product available to their customers in the market.
This has been found that shutdown of the government affects the transportations, which include
truckload border crossing, ocean and air imports, air travellers, and US download truckload. The
detailed discussed has been presented in the paper in the form the literature review.

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Literature review
The literature review includes the opinions of the different authors related to the concern topic
that is how the government shutdown plays a vital role in transportation. It has been found that
the transit system of all the sized put efforts so that they can make their dollars stretch in the
meantime which might include the tapping reserves or taking the loan amount. Further, the
Federal Transit Administration can make it hard for the system that might have money to spend
it.
According to Transport Topics 2019, government shutdown impact will be on the employees,
who are working in the transportation. It has been found that if the US government does
shutdown then 800,000 and 2.1 million employees of the country will not be able to work and
leads to impact on economy. These employees include some people who work in order to keep
the freight movement safe and continuous across the country and world. It has been found that
there US market is every uncertain in terms of the transportation as there are many agencies who
regulate the air movement but they are also planning for the shutdown as they can expect it to be
averted. The government shutdown affects transportation system that is explained below.
Truckload border crossings
The shutdown will lead to the impact on the truckload border crossing as this can be witnessed
with the delay due to the issue of customs as well as border patrol priorities the security that is
essential over the speedy freight flows in the southern as well as the northern border. In the
research of Supply Chain 24/7, 2013, it has been found that the presence of the government will
make this operation rapidly because they keep the eye on the every manner that resolves the
concern on real-time basis. Further, it has been found that Truckload border crossings is

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depended on the cooperation of the different agencies and government is one of them as it gives
the approval for the transportation of the products through crossing. The shutdown of the
government will lead to the rise in issues of approval as well as lead to security issues within US.
Further, the major concerns that occur include the signing off the clearance documents that
include USDA, Forest services, and many others. The major affect include the crossing
flexibility as well as monitoring, as this always remain the crucial gauges that might lead to
different impacts.
Moreover, the product type also matters as the delay in product delivery will affects the product
that are perishable and this leads to the loss of the suppliers of the raw material and the
companies who have made the payment for such kind of stocks. In addition to this, delay in
product delivery will lead to rise in demand and then prices of product will increase (Supply
Chain 24/7, 2013). Overall, the consequences will be on the owners of the company, as they will
attain the loss of customers and at a point when goods will be delivered, they will get the profit
due to high prices of product. It has been found that shutdown can have the effect on tax refund
due to no processing from the government side due to which it will take the longer period than
the usual time.
Further, the transit agencies involved in the transport across the board also get affected, as they
do not get any kind of the grants or approvals for the new construction projects until and unless
the shutdown of the government will get over. In addition to this, agencies who regulate like
FTA can grant for the projects at the time off the fiscal year that is possible once it has had 5
months’ worth of the appropriations as per the APTA (Vock, 2019). Thus, this means that transit
agencies will not be able to make any kind of the long deals.

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Air and Ocean Imports
The second most important mode of transportation includes Air and Ocean Imports, which will
be impacted with the government shut down. The air as well as ocean imports can find the delays
in the delivery of the products similar to the Truckload border crossings. Land Link, 2019 said
that the government plays a vital role at the ports and at airports because there is need to check
the security issues, authenticity issues, proper documentation, and signing off the documents.
The absence of the government will lead to the issues for the companies who want to transport
the products and for the employees who work at air and ocean imports. Another impact can be
round of the sequestration cuts that appears in October 2019 which is more major then the
potential shutdown as it means that there will be increase in the wait time for the import of the
products irrespective of the fact that shutdown is there or not.
Contracting this, Vock, 2019 says that flexibility is considered as one of the essential component
in the transportation and it is considered as biggest threat for shutdown of government and
sequestration. In addition, the entire paper work formation will take time that affects the delivery
of the product at the place where it was badly required.
U.S. Domestic Truckload/Intermodal Freight
According to the Transport Topics 2019, daily operation will not be disrupted at all due to the
Federal Motor carrier safety administration is sponsored like an agency outside of the funding
that might potentially be shutting down as segment of the consistent resolution that is being
debated now. The shutdown of the government can affect in the form of delays as well as
disruption in the delivery to the facilities related to the federal that might need the appointments
of the facilities that might not be operated to load or unload. The major examples of the places
include prisons, military bases as well as the federal projects of the constructions. In addition to

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this, it has been found that longer shutdown by the government can lead to the chances of
thousands of dollars in demurrage and custody fines (Transport Topics 2019).
U.S. Domestic Truckload gets affected due to shut down that affects the working of the
companies engaged in the operations. These companies found that they are not able to effective
maintain the supply chain of the products. Thus, these companies form the strategic supply chain
plans in order to help so that they can overcome from any kind of disruptions which is caused
due to the shutdown of the business. According to Supply Chain 24/7, 2019 companies in US
market needs to plan technology with the extra due diligence that will assist organisation to
accomplish the need and demands of consumers and to keep moving their operations in the
domestic market.
It has been found that the major issue is related to the employees who are working in
transportation as there pay-check are missing which means that employees are working but they
are not getting the pay. Thus, this creates the impact on the living of the employees of the
country that are engaged in this field. This concern is raised by the employees in the front of the
government so that they can get the results for the same. It has been found, there is no positive
response from the government that makes the employees to leave the field of transportation and
to work for the companies who can offer the high amount.
Air travellers
The shutdown of the government has the vast impact on the air travellers of the nation. The
government shutdown can affect the delay in the flight schedules due to the longer lines in the
security that consumes the time around the airports of the country. In addition to this, the
Transportation Security Administration confirms that there will be increase in the number of its

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employees that will become sick (Schaper, 2019). The query from the customers will increase
because of the issues present at the air travel that will increase the workload at the airports. The
major affect will be to the customers, as due to this long security lines they will miss their flights
due to which they will not be able to reach where they want. This shows that government
shutdown can create the effect on the airport staff, airports functions and operations as well as
the customers who take the air travels.
Agreeing to the fact, Josephs, 2019 found that government shutdown will lead to loss of the
revenue of airline companies. One of the southwest airline said that they lost up to more than $15
million so far this annual year while on the other hand, Delta Air Lines last week admitted the
fact that the shutdown of the administration leads to the cost of $25 million in the revenue of a
particular month.
It has been found that in US market there is rise in the concern related to the shutdown of the
business that affects the convenient as well as effective air travel by the people. This gives them
a reason due to which they analyse the situation and according to book tickets because they do
not want to get affected (Koenig, 2019). Thus, this is the reason due to which very less number
of customer’s book tickets at this duration because they do not want to deal with any kind of
security issues and delays.

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Conclusion
In the end, this can be concluded from the above analysis that logistics and supply chain
management is considered as the backbone of the companies. The effective transportation
facilities are required by the companies for their effective operations in the market of Australia.
It has been found that transportation facilities are totally depended on the government of the
country. This means that the shutdown of the government will affect the transportation that
includes truckload border crossing, Air and Ocean Imports, US domestic truckload/ Intermodal
Freight and the air travellers. It has been found that shutdown of the government leads to the
major issues for the employees working in the transportation field as they get delay in providing
the services to the final customers. All the transportation services deals with the issue of delays,
long lines, security concern and many others. These issues are briefly discussed so that it can be
analysed that how government Shutdown can affect transportation.

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References
Josephs, L. (2019). Air travel workers warn on shutdown’s safety risks while airlines fret about
disruptions as industry nears ‘tipping point’. Retrieved from:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/24/government-shutdown-sparks-safety-concerns-
among-aviation-workers.html
Koenig, D. (2019). Air travelers start to feel effects of government shutdown. Retrieved from:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2019/01/08/government-shutdown-air-
travel-concerns-rise-amid-impasse/2511468002/
Land Link. (2019). Government Shutdown: What it Means for Logistics. Retrieved from:
http://www.land-link.com/blog/government-shutdown-what-it-means-for-logistics
Schaper, D. (2019) How The Government Shutdown Is Affecting Air Travel. Retrieved from:
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/07/683021627/how-the-government-shutdown-is-affecting-
air-travel
Supply Chain 24/7. (2013). Will the U.S. Government Shutdown Impact Transportation?.
Retrieved from:
https://www.supplychain247.com/article/will_the_u.s._government_shutdown_impact_tr
ansportation/c.h._robinson
Supply Chain 24/7. (2019). How Government Shutdown Affects Transportation Operations.
Retrieved from:
https://www.supplychain247.com/article/how_government_shutdown_affects_transportat
ion_operations

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Transport Topics. (2019) How a Prolonged Government Shutdown Might Ripple Down to States.
Retrieved from: https://www.ttnews.com/articles/how-prolonged-government-shutdown-
might-ripple-down-states
Vock, D.C. (2019). As Shutdown Stretches On, Transportation Officials Worry About Long-Term
Effects. Retrieved from: https://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-
infrastructure/gov-shutdown-dot-transportation-transit-funding-trump.html