One of the biggest challenges we face in Southern California is the growth in the economy. Growth has made finding good people to hire a tougher task. The jobs we as a company need to be filled, at the wages we'd like to pay, go open for longer periods of time. When these positions then are filled, the wages are normally at high levels — sometimes more than we'd be willing to pay in the past.
Coupled with the tightening labor situation is the population growth in Southern California, which when considered with the increases the region has seen in both the import and export of containers into the area, stretches our infrastructure exceedingly thin. Traffic is abominable, and, as you know, time in our business — in our trucks — equals money.
In my opinion, an inflationary period is now starting — higher wages, higher costs, and if the federal government allows the deficit to expand without any accountability, we'll eventually see inflationary momentum gained — the Fed is raising interest rates now consistently to help avoid this from happening.
I also see the constant investment we'll all need to make software and systems-wise to stay current in the digitization and data worlds. New software offering more features, easier to use, giving us more data, as well as some that give intuitive insight, is constantly being pushed toward us all. Resisting change is tough to do if you believe over the long term it helps differentiate you from your competition.